A Child Of Iron
by LERDM
Summary: Ellie Stark was adopted by Tony Stark, she has tremendous gifts, but Tony only knows a few of them. When the events of Iron Man and the Avengers unfold, the bond between father and daughter will be tested as secrets about Ellie are revealed, as the world is put through tests again and again. Pepperoni (Pepper X Tony) and Loki X OC
1. Chapter 1

**Authors Note: Hey guys! I'm back! I haven't updated this story in forever, but I have been really busy rewriting a great deal of it. Even the people who have been with me a long time might need a bit of a re-read, especially since I changed several things in the beginning. The chapters are longer, and I've tried to elaborate more on key relationships in the story. Another important detail, the D and M keys on my computer are very sticky, and as I was editing through, I noticed that there were several places that my spellcheck didn't catch, so I'm sorry if you find some of those. Finally, there are a lot of parts in the last few chapters that are pretty much verbatim with the dialogue from the movie. I'm working on fixing that, so it'll probably be fixed in the next update.**

* * *

"I am Iron Man." the on-screen Tony said as the real Tony walked into his living area. Everything was exactly as he had left it a few hours ago, except for the teenage girl sitting on his couch drinking chocolate milk, typing away on his laptop.

"Um, excuse me? Who are you?" Tony asked, surprised to see someone uninvited in his home. He looked at her, and figured she was young, maybe 17?

"I'm Ellie, well, my name is Bellicose, I don't know if my parents knew what that actually meant, but I don't like it, so call me Ellie." She paused, "I uh... hacked into your security, and I was looking at these new schematics for another iron man suit, and I was thinking that you should use a boron-based fuel, it's less powerful sure, but environmentally and cost wise it's much more efficient, not that you really have to worry about cost." She stopped, "And there are also those other prototypes for arc reactors, but I don't think they'll help your current predicament much, I-" Ellie rattled on before Tony cut her off.

"I'm sorry, my current predicament?" He asked.

"Well, your blood is becoming toxic, it's a side effect of the Palladium core in your mini-arc reactor, you should really start drinking chlorophyll, but that won't stop it, it'll simply slow it down. You need to find a different core." Ellie said, "But I'm sure you already knew that."

Tony had, but he didn't know how this kid knew it, "Who-who sent you here?" he asked, becoming more and more confused.

"No one, I came on my own," Ellie said while continuing to type on the laptop.

"Then what do you want?" Tony asked exasperatedly.

She swiped whatever she had been working on outward, and JARVIS projected it, Tony stepped closer and saw that it was an article. The title read 'Billionaire Tony Stark Adopts Child Prodigy', under that was a picture of them working together in his lab, her Photoshop skills were impressive. He looked at her incredulously, "You want me to adopt you? Yeah no, I'll pass." Tony said.

"The adoption papers are on the counter," she pointed, "I'm going to release this article in two hours regardless, so you might as well just do it. I've already unpacked my stuff in one of the rooms. Don't feel you have to change your lifestyle on account of me, continue to bring your floozies around, although, you should probably stop that kind of behaviour because it seems like you and Pepper are in for the long run." Ellie said and smiled, "Oh! You should call her about this before I tell the world so she isn't mad that you didn't tell her earlier." Ellie spoke, and while he didn't totally understand, Tony understood enough to realize that he wasn't getting out of this.

The thought of adopting this kid wasn't bothering him as much as he knew it should, she obviously knew her stuff, and if he was being honest with himself, he had always wanted to have a kid, but he was worried that he would have messed it up. But with Ellie, he wouldn't have to worry about messing her up, because whoever she was with before had to deal with that, now he could just have fun.

"Alright kid, I'll do it, but let me call Pepper first okay?" Tony smiled.

Ellie's eye's widened in surprise, she leaped off the couch and hugged Tony, "Thank you." she said.

She pulled away and let Tony reach for his cell phone. "Hey Pepper, so I have some news..." Tony said.

"Oh God Tony, what is it this time? Is it bad? Is it really bad?" She asked. Pepper had had a long day, and she wasn't mentally prepared to deal with any craziness today.

"No, it's nothing bad. I found this kid, and I'm gonna adopt her," Tony told her.

"You found a child?" Pepper asked, "What does that mean?"

"Well, she broke into my house, but she's smart. I like her spunk."

"She broke into your house? How is that possible? You have one of the best home security systems in the world."

"Yeah, and she disabled it," Tony told her.

Pepper sighed, "Listen, I think you'd make a great father-"

"Thank you-"

"One day..."

"Oh..."

"Tony, you don't exactly live a child-friendly lifestyle. You travel all the time, you work all the time, you are constantly hanging around people who are drunk or on drugs. It's not the best environment for a little girl."

"Well she's not that little," Tony paused and Pepper could hear him asking the girl how old she was, "She's seventeen."

Pepper thought about it for a moment. Seventeen wasn't that young, barely a child anymore. "Tony, if you think it's a good idea..."

"You're in kid," Pepper heard Tony say to the girl.

"What's her name?"

"Ellie."

* * *

That night...

Tony was eating dinner with his new daughter. It felt funny to even think about really, he had never really thought of himself as a father.

"So, where are you from?" Tony asked her.

"Canada," She answered.

"Canada?"

"Yeah, I grew up there," Ellie told him.

"Huh, why'd you come down here then?"

She shrugged, "It's easier to hide down here."

"Hide? From what?"

"I don't really know... the police reports said that there was a gas explosion that levelled the house. I must've hit my head, because when I woke up I was far away, and everyone thought I was dead. At the time it seemed like it was easier to stay that way."

Tony looked at the girl in surprise, she didn't really look like someone who had been running her whole life. She was short and very much the opposite of intimidating, he couldn't imagine her running alone on the streets.

"So where have you been since then?" Tony asked.

"I moved around a lot, I... I really didn't want to go back," Ellie said.

Tony realized that their topic of conversation had been pretty dark and gloomy, "So, what do you do for fun?"

Ellie smiled, "I like messing around with computers."

They stayed up pretty late discussing computer coding and programming, and when Ellie finally went to sleep, Tony was sure he had made a good decision.

* * *

About Five Months Later...

Tony was busy entertaining the crowd at the expo, but Ellie had stayed home. She was going to try to pull an all-nighter in an attempt to find a suitable replacement core for the arc reactor. A few hours into her night she ordered some pizza and not soon after she got a phone call from Tony.

"What's up parental?" she asked as she answered the phone.

"Nothing much kiddo, so listen, I'm driving to Washington tonight because I just got a subpoena, so I won't be home tonight, obviously," Tony said, his slightly annoyed tone coming through.

"Bummer, I was going to stay up all night and watch Star Wars," Ellie said jokingly.

"Well, you can still do that, I just won't be there," Tony said back, he was obviously stressed.

"Well, you're obviously stressed about this, so I'll drive down tonight too," Ellie said.

"No, I don't want you to drive alone at night," Tony responded.

"Oh, what was that? I can't hear you over the highway?" Ellie said jokingly. "I'll see you tomorrow." She hung up before Tony could respond. She quickly ran to the garage and jumped into her car.

She drove for four hours straight, and when she arrived she pulled into the same hotel that Tony had just gotten a reservation for one hour prior. She let the valet take her car and went up to Tony's room, which she had determined thanks to Jarvis.

She knocked on the door, and Happy opened it, "Oh! Miss Stark!" Happy exclaimed, surprised to see her there so quickly, "Come in, there's another bed, Tony's asleep right now. Are you coming with us to the hearing tomorrow?"

"Yeah probably, and a bed sounds great right now, thanks," Ellie replied.

She carried her backpack into the large, overly grand hotel room, there was a small living area with a kitchen, which leads to a hallway which had three doors, one of the doors was open, and it revealed Tony's sleeping form, the other two were closed, Ellie looked behind her to Happy, who gestured to the room on the left of the hallway, across from Tony.

She fell backwards onto the bed and practically fell asleep on the spot.

 _That night..._

 _"You almost had it, Bella!" Loki cried, "You give up too easy, have some faith in yourself." Loki was watching Bellicose try to fire a ball of energy at a target, but it fizzled out before it made it even close. They were in a large open field, with grass and trees all around them. It was an illusion of Loki's creation. In reality, they were meeting through a magic mental connection that managed to span across the amazing distance that separated them._

 _"I'm trying, it's not working," Ellie grumbled._

 _Loki smiled at her gently, "Let's take a break shall we?"_

 _Over the years, Loki had been mentoring the girl in all things Asgardian and beyond. He had taught her their language, their customs, their history. He taught her magic and music, and really anything that was of any interest. She didn't think he was real, which was something he could understand, but he wished she did know._

 _"How are you today Loki?" She asked him. They both sat down on the grass._

 _Loki looked away briefly, "I am fine," He said._

 _She looked at him with uncertainty, "Really? Cause it doesn't seem like it."_

 _"Just leave it, Bella," Loki said. His voice became a little deeper, and a lot darker._

 _"Whatever it is, I-"_

 _"Please, just-" He stopped talking. No one else would ever know, but this girl, this mortal, had managed to crack his cold exterior. She was the only person he knew besides his mother that was consistently and genuinely kind. She didn't even think he was real, but yet she still treated him with more care and respect than most people he knew on Asgard. He didn't want to break down in front of her, he was afraid he would lose his resolve. He had planned a trick, really a trick was all it was. To disturb Thor's coronation and save the nine realms from his idiotic brother a while longer._

 _She sat up on her knees beside him so that they were the same height. She put her hands on his shoulders, leaned towards him and hugged him. For a moment Loki thought she was going to kiss him. Was it wrong that he wanted her to?_

In the morning...

Ellie was sitting at the table in the dining room of the hotel room flipping through the pages of the Great Gatsby while Tony was preening himself.

"So what exactly is this hearing supposed to be about?" Ellie asked.

"They want to take my suit and my tech, what they haven't yet realized is that they can't."

"If they can't then what's with the trial?"

"Well, this Senator thinks he knows the law, but he's mistaken. The suit isn't defined as a weapon, and can therefore not be seized under the law he is claiming."

"Wow, so did you just memorize that last night?"

"Does it sound that rehearsed?"

"Yes," Ellie said, "throw in some humour, the press isn't going to be on your side if it's all boring law talk. If anyone wanted that they'd be at something actually important." Tony raised an eyebrow at her, "You know what I mean."

He sighed, "You're right kid."

Ellie looked at him closely, "You seem worried about this, should I be worried?"

"No, it'll be fine. It's just annoying," Tony said.

They went to the courthouse, and Ellie sat through the humorous hearing where Tony called the senator a prostitute and claimed he had privatized world peace. Afterwards, Tony needed to go to the washroom, leaving Ellie hanging out in the lobby alone as Pepper was taking a phone call outside, and Happy was getting the car.

Justin Hammer then walked up to her and decided to start a conversation, "Hi, Ellie was is?" He asked.

"Hi," She replied. She was slightly confused about what he was doing, but there was no need to be rude.

"I'm Justin, Hammer," He said and grinned oddly.

"I know who you are," Ellie said. She was beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable.

"Right, well..." He trailed off and took a step closer to her, "How would you feel about doing some freelance work for Hammer Industries?"

"Thanks but no thanks," Ellie said with a forced smile.

"Oh come on don't-" He reached out his hand towards her, presumably to touch her arm or shoulder.

Ellie quickly took a step back, avoiding his touch, "I'm sorry, I have to go," She said quickly, noticing Tony walking towards them.

She pushed past Justin and fell into step behind Tony.

Tony looked at her strangely, "What was that about?"

"He asked if I wanted to do some freelance work for him," Ellie told Tony.

Tony raised an eyebrow, "What did you say?"

Ellie looked at him incredulously, "I said no. Obviously."

"Well, I just want you to know that you don't need to work for Stark Industries, you can do whatever you want. I don't want you to be limited by me."

They exited the courthouse and walked towards the car, "I know that, but not him. Definitely not him." Tony furrowed his eyebrows as he entered the car. "He gives me the creeps," Ellie explained.

"Agreed."

Pepper was sitting in the car, and as soon as Tony was settled she smacked his arm.

"Ow!"

"What was that?!" Pepper demanded.

"I thought it was funny! The people are on my side!" Tony said with an amused smirk.

"You are in serious trouble. If it weren't for Rhodey your suits would be as good as gone by now!"

Ellie and Tony shared a look, and then they both burst out laughing.

"Alright, mom!" Tony said.

Pepper shook her head, "Tony I'm warning you. If we don't do damage control on this-"

"Well, that's what I have you for, right?" Tony asked. He flashed his puppy dog eyes at Pepper.

She sighed, "I am not paid enough for this."

"Thanks, Pep," Tony said and pecked her cheek. Pepper blushed bright red.

"Please go back to Malibu and lay low for a while okay?" Pepper asked.

"You know me," Tony said with a grin.

"I'll keep him in line," Ellie said.

"Phf, you can try!" Tony exclaimed.

Happy rolled down the divider in the car, "We're at the airstrip boss."

"Home?" Tony asked Ellie.

"Home."


	2. Chapter 2

They arrived in Malibu that afternoon. After being welcomed home by Jarvis, Ellie ran to her room and threw her travel bag on her bed. Then she noticed something that was sticking out from behind her dresser. She bent down and picked it up. It was a photograph of her parents on their wedding day.

Ellie sighed and placed it on her dresser, she was never going to stop missing them, but over the years the pain had lessened. It was actually last month when she had realized for the first time that she hadn't thought of them at all for a single day. It was a big milestone. And having new parental figures definitely helped.

Tony was a good father figure, despite what the press thought. Pepper was also starting to grow on her as a mother figure, and she was someone Ellie really looked up to.

Ellie went downstairs to the workshop and saw that Tony was replacing one of his arc reactor cores. It appeared like it had been completely corroded.

"Tony?" Ellie asked, "You didn't tell me it was this bad."

Tony looked slightly startled, he hadn't noticed her come in. "It's not as bad as it looks."

Ellie shook her head, "Don't do that, you look like ghost Tony."

Tony looked at her, he wasn't quite sure what to say.

"Have you told Pepper?" She asked.

Tony looked down and shook his head, "I'll figure something out."

"Do you promise?" Ellie asked.

Tony looked at her sadly, "I will try, I will do everything I can. I promise you that."

Ellie shook her head, "My parents died right beside me, please don't let that happen again."

 _That Night..._

 _Ellie woke in the field, as she always did, and Loki was standing in front of her, waiting with his back turned._

 _"So what are we doing tonight?" Ellie asked. Loki didn't turn around, and Ellie walked towards him, "Loki? Are you alright?"_

 _He turned around slowly, and Ellie could tell right away something wasn't right. His eyes were clear and glassy, his usually calm face was contorted in sadness and anger._

 _"I'm a monster Bella," He said._

 _Ellie looked at him strangely, "Loki, what are you talking about?"_

 _He stood there and looked her straight in the eyes as his skin began to change colour, from pale white to deep blue. He wanted to see her face as she realized he was a monster, but her face never changed into fear or anger. She did the exact opposite of what he was expecting, she smiled and laughed a little._

 _She walked a bit closer to him so that she was less than an arm's length away, she touched his arm and smiled._

 _"I don't really understand," Ellie traced the silver lines on his face, "But your skin is nice and cool, and I've been burning up all day."_

 _She hugged him, her warm body pressed up against his. Loki realized she didn't care, why would she? She was amazing, she was special, she... Ellie pulled away slightly, and he realized that a single tear had fallen down his cheek. She brushed it off with her thumb, and she smiled at him. She was perfect, and Loki knew what he had to do._

 _He leaned down and kissed her, he thought she would pull away, he thought he had pushed it too far. She didn't move at first, but when she did, she leaned into him. One of her hands intertwined itself in his hair, and the other rested on his shoulder. After several moments they both pulled back, Ellie's face was flushed, but Loki's held a slightly bittersweet smile._

 _"What's wrong?" Ellie asked, thinking it was something she had done._

 _"You don't think I exist, whatever that was... for you, it wasn't real."_

 _Ellie looked away, "I wish you were real."_

 _"I am, Bella I am!" Loki begged. He cared for her, deeply. It was killing him to know that one of the few people who seemed to care that much back didn't believe he was real._

 _Ellie looked at him sadly, "Only here." She put a hand over her chest_.

* * *

Ellie woke from her dream, it was a little strange, even by her standards.

She rolled over to get a good look at her alarm clock. It read 12:07 pm. She sat up quickly and got dressed. If she didn't go downstairs soon Tony was going to think she was dead, she never slept in that late.

Tony looked at Ellie as she hopped downstairs an into the kitchen, "Late night?" He asked.

Ellie shrugged and smiled, "Good dream."

"That makes one of us," He mumbled.

Ellie's smiled faded, "Have you made any progress?"

Tony shook his head, "Ellie, I've got to talk to you about something, but Pepper's coming over with a lawyer in a few minutes."

Ellie nodded, "Okay." From the look on Tony's face, it wasn't going to be a fun conversation, but Ellie was an optimist. "I'm gonna go work on my project."

Tony nodded and smiled at her, "Have fun!" He paused, "Don't blow up the house!"

"I won't!" Ellie called from around the corner she had already turned.

Tony smiled to himself, Ellie had been working on something really interesting. It was a theory based off of some research done by a man named Erik Selvig. She was looking into the viability of renewable energy. Tony didn't know all of the specifics, he wasn't a genius in quantum physics, but he knew enough to know that it was groundbreaking research. He was really proud of her, she wasn't as adept with machines and robotics as he was, but she could hack anything, and was stunningly good at math, which probably was what started her interests in physics in the first place.

A few hours later, Tony and Ellie were sitting next to ssh ornery on the couch watching reruns of Little House on the Prarie when what Tony ad told Ellie about earlier came into her mind.

"Hey, didn't you say you wanted to talk with me about something?" Ellie asked him.

Tony nodded slightly solemnly, "Yeah, I wanted you let you know, that if something happens to me-"

"Tony, don't," Ellie warned, tears on the verge of spilling in her eyes.

"I've left everything to you and Pepper. And I said that I want her to be your guardian when-"

"If. Tony, it's IF," Ellie corrected.

"I know kid, I just wanted you to know that you don't have to run ever again. I don't want you to."

Ellie could no longer contain herself and leaped upon Tony like her life depended on it. "You're not going anywhere Tony."

* * *

The next day, Tony, Ellie and Pepper were all leaving for Spain to go watch a race. Ellie was excited, Pepper was dreading the flight, and Tony was neutral on the matter. He checked his watch, time to go sign over his entire company to Pepper.

Ellie dozed off pretty quickly during the plane ride to Madrid, something Tony envied.

Tony and Pepper sat across from each other, and both of them watched her as she smiled in her sleep.

"She always looks so happy when she sleeps," Pepper remarked.

"She's always happy, period," Tony replied. He watched her silently, "She told me that she has different variations of the same good dream every night."

Pepper smiled, "I wish."

"Me too," Tony said. He watched her sleeping peacefully and wondered what she was dreaming about.

* * *

 _Loki was trying desperately to teach Ellie how to dance, "Bella, use your left foot to step forward." She promptly stepped forward with her right foot, Loki sighed._

 _Ellie laughed, "Sorry! I warned you, I'm terrible!"_

 _Loki smiled at her and shook his head lightly, "I simply don't understand, you have perfect rhythm and coordination when I'm teaching you how to fight, but dancing just pushes you over the edge doesn't it?" He asked playfully._

 _"Those are totally different things! Incomparable," Ellie said._

 _"Really?" Loki asked. He held out his hand, and Ellie grabbed it. He put his other hand on her waist, and she put hers on his shoulder. "Pretend we're in battle, move with me, feel where I'm going to go next."_

 _Ellie kept looking at the ground, at her feet, and she kept making the wrong moves._

 _"Bella," Loki said. "Don't look down. Look me in the eyes. Stop thinking about what your feet are doing, let it be controlled by instinct."_

 _Ellie looked up at Loki's green eyes, and she only thought about him as he started to move. At first, she stumbled often, but pretty quickly her movements became more fluid, and eventually, they were dancing perfectly._

 _Loki smiled at her, she was staring into his eyes and smiling, he was as well. He spun her around and she laughed, as she was coming out of the spin she stumbled slightly, tripping over him. She caught herself by wrapping her arms around his neck, and he caught her by the waist. Ellie rested her forehead on his shoulder, and they swayed like that for a few moments. Loki pulled away slightly and looked at her face again. She was amazing._

 _She tilted her head up towards him and stood on the tips of her toes, she leaned forwards and-_

The plane landed with a jolt, and Ellie was ejected from her dream. She looked out the window and saw that they had arrived at their destination.

Ellie, Pepper and Tony stepped out of the car in Madrid, Spain. They were there to watch the Grand Prix, Stark Industries sponsors a team, so they were going for support of some kind. When Ellie had initially heard of this plan she was going to stay in Maui, but at the last minute she had thought of something that would be a bit more fun, so in the end, she decided to go with them to Madrid.

"Hey, I'm just going to go for a little walk, I've been sitting down way too much today," Ellie said.

"Sure kid, just be safe," Tony replied. Ellie nodded and walked down the steps and walked around a corner and out of site.

What Tony didn't know was that Ellie had made some phone calls yesterday, and was now on her way to get into Stark Industries revolutionary Formula One race car. She did have a hand in designing it, and she was a good driver, so what could go wrong. Tony was going to be either pissed or impressed and she wouldn't know until she had already done it. She reached the tent where a man named Rico was waiting for her with the uniform.

"Are you sure about this Miss Stark?" he asked.

"I'm sure Rico," Ellie said, "This is going to be fun!" She exclaimed.

"You are more like your father than you might like to admit," Rico said, amused. They both laughed, Rico handed her the uniform and left her so she could change.

Meanwhile, back at the restaurant...

Tony was desperately trying to ignore Justin Hammer, who had managed to weasel his way into the bar beside Tony. Tony had held nothing but disgust for the man after he tried to 'persuade' Ellie to take his job offer. Tony was also trying to deal with an angry Pepper, since she just now discovered that he hired Natalie as his new personal secretary. So, all in all, it was shaping up to be a poor afternoon. Little did he know it was about to get worse.

"You know, you let Ellie do a lot of dangerous stuff, but this seems a little much. Don't you think?" Justin said.

Tony shook his head in confusion, "What?" he asked. Justin didn't respond but simply pointed to the TV where it showed Bellicose Stark as the driver.

"Pepper!" Tony shouted.

"Tony, what's-" Pepper started to ask, but Tony pointed to the TV and she was silenced.

"This cannot happen!" Tony said.

"Absolutely, I understand, how can I help?" Natalie replied.

"Where's Happy?" Pepper asked. Tony pulled his hand through his hair. It's not like he thought that Ellie couldn't do it, but he just had a really bad feeling, what if she crashed? He felt physically ill, and it wasn't because his blood toxicity was on the rise again.

"He's in the car outside," Natalie responded.

"Okay, get him, get in the car, get us to the track," Tony said, downing the rest of his drink and walking briskly out the door.

They quickly got into the car, Tony knew that they were going to be too late as he watched the race start on his screen, she was actually good, and so Tony decided to try and be less anxious, but by the fourth lap she was firmly in the first position and had a good lead. As they pulled up to the track, Tony had started to cheer, and most of the concern about her crashing had dissipated. That was, until a man in an orange jumpsuit ran onto the course.

...

Everything was going well, Ellie was in first place. It was a little more difficult to steer than she thought it would be, but after the first lap, she got the hang of it. It also helped that she was playing around with simulators at home before they came here.

All of the sudden she got a transmission over the radio line, "Miss Stark, there's someone on the track ahead, we'll try to get him off, but you might get there before we can do anything, be careful okay? The car can be replaced, but try not to injure yourself or the man."

"Copy that, I'll be careful," Ellie responded, she slowed down slightly, but she then realized that she hadn't asked where on the track he was, but before she could radio back, she saw him.

He was wearing an orange jumpsuit, but as she slammed the brakes and turned the wheel, she saw that he had whip-like extensions on his arms, and the jumpsuit began to burn away as the whips seemed to surge with electricity. He looked right at her and whipped his right arm across the body of the car, narrowly avoiding her legs and slicing the car in half. She soared through the air and the car landed upside down, the seatbelt dug into her shoulder, and she heard a snap. There was an intense ringing in her ears, and she could tell that she had at least fractured her collarbone. She looked at the man who was stalking towards her, she knew she needed to move.

She unhooked the seat belt and carefully rolled away from the car, she removed her helmet, and she watched his facial expression carefully. He seemed surprised, and she knew that he had been expecting Tony.

She moved into a crouched position, noticing the burning fuel all around her, she knew if he hit the fuel with the electrically charged whips it would cause an explosion. She waited for a few more moments and quickly rolled just as she saw his arm begin to rise above his shoulder. There was a large explosion, and Ellie felt the heat burn on her back, but she didn't have time to dwell on that. He was making a show of it now, he whipped his arms in circles as more cars came careening around, he shredded them, and Ellie was lucky not to be hit by any large pieces. She quickly jumped to her feet and was facing the man.

They were in a bit of a stare down, and he raised his arms to deliver a final strike.

Tony swore he had a heart attack when that man cut Ellie's car in half, he had another when he thought he watched Ellie get engulfed in an explosion. The third heart attack came when she stood perfectly still while he was about to cut her in half, only to see her narrowly dodge his whip.

As they turned the corner, Tony could see Ellie avoiding another stroke of the whip, "Do you have the suit?" Tony asked frantically.

"Yes, yeah. Here." Happy said, handing him the black suitcase.

"Hit him!" Pepper shouted as Happy sped up and rammed the man into the fence.

"Where's the key?" Tony asked, looking around, his hands were shaking.

"It's in my pocket." Happy said, he took one hand off the wheel and dug into his pocket to find the key, which he handed back to Tony, who then opened the door of the car and got out. He threw the case on the ground and stepped onto it, Tony glanced over to Ellie, she was holding her arm up close to her, but besides some minor cuts, she didn't seem to have any major injuries.

As the mask of the suit went over his face, Tony's robotic sounding voice said, "Stand back kid."

In the meantime, the man in the orange jumpsuit had cut the car in half, and Pepper was screaming. Tony kicked the car away from the fence and shot a repulsor blast at the man, but the man had moved away too quickly and he missed. The man managed to get a whip around Tony's neck, but it was only a simple discomfort to him as he continued to wrap himself up in the cord to get closer to the man. It worked, and soon Tony was able to rip the arc reactor out of the man's 'suit'. He knocked the man to the ground.

Tony glared at him as he began to laugh, "You-you lose, you lose Stark." The security dragged him away, and Ellie went to stand beside Tony.

He noticed that she looked a little pale, "You okay kid?"

"I think my collarbone is broken," Ellie responded. He could tell she was in a lot of pain.

"Happy, get another car, Ellie needs to go to the hospital," Tony said to Happy, who was a few feet away. "Why didn't you just run away? You gave me a heart attack watching you dodge those things by like an inch!" Tony whisper yelled.

Ellie smiled slightly despite the pain, "Sorry."

"Well, I'm not going to reem you out for racing because I was seriously thinking about doing it a few moments before I saw that you had beat me to it, but please don't scare me like that again. Okay?" Tony said, trying his best to sound parental.

"Deal." Ellie said, she looked around at the scorch marks on the pavement from the whips, "You're going to go and figure out what the hell was right?"

Tony nodded, "You know me well kid. If there are any problems, or if you want me at all, just call," Tony told her. She nodded and headed towards Happy, who had procured another car since the one he had originally gotten was now shredded and laying on the pavement. Tony gritted his teeth, the calm facade he had in front of Ellie was now gone. He was furious, how dare that man touch his daughter? He went to go find a car of his own, he had a bone to pick with the would-be Iron Man.


	3. Chapter 3

Tony went to the prison where they were holding the man who had attacked Ellie on the racetrack. He was given five minutes to speak with the man.

"Pretty decent tech. Cycles per second were a little low. You could have doubled up your rotations. You focused the repulsor energy through ionized plasma channels. It's effective. Not very efficient. But it's a passable knock-off. I don't get it. A little fine tuning you could have made a solid paycheck. You could have sold it to North Korea, China, Iran, or gone onto the black market. You look like you got friends in low places." Tony said as he walked in circles around him.

The man rolled his eyes, "You come from a family of thieves and butchers. And now, like all guilty men, you try to rewrite your own history. And you forget all the lives the Stark family has destroyed." He said. Tony was surprised by his sudden talk-ability, "That being said, I didn't mean to hurt your daughter."

Tony glared at him, "Speaking of thieves, where did you get this design?"

"My father, Anton Vanko." The man, Vanko, said.

"Well, I never heard of him," Tony said, trying to get under his skin.

"My father is the reason you're alive."

"The reason I'm alive is because you attacked my daughter and not me" Tony took a menacing step closer to him, "And you should be thanking God that she's okay because if she wasn't, there would be no force on earth that could stop me from killing you."

Tony went to leave the cell, having said everything he had wanted to, but Vanko had something more to add.

"Hey, Tony! Before you go, palladium in the chest, painful way to die." He said, smirking. Though, Tony couldn't see his face.

* * *

Ellie had gone to the hospital, gotten an x-ray, and her collarbone was only fractured, not broken. They said she would need to be in a sling for about three weeks, and then be re-evaluated. Tony had met back up with Ellie and Pepper at the airstrip, and they were headed home, even though Tony didn't want to.

Pepper was sitting practically alone in the jet, Ellie had fallen asleep on the pain medication and Tony had gone off into some other part of the plane. Leaving Pepper to her thoughts. They mainly focused on how the press was going to eat her alive, there's buzz about Tony being a neglectful parent, the government is threatening to take away Tony's suits, everything was going to hell.

Tony set some sort of dish beside her on the small table, it was an omelet.

"What is that?" Pepper asked him.

"An omelette. Where do you think I've been for the past three hours." Tony said.

"Tony, what are you not telling me?" Pepper asked.

"I don't want to go home. At all. Let's cancel my birthday party and… We're in Europe. Let's go to Venice, Cipriani. Remember?" Tony said, from the corner of his eye he could see Ellie's face turn into a frown in her sleep.

"Oh, yes." Pepper said sarcastically while rolling her eyes.

"It's a great place to be healthy." Tony rebutted.

"I don't think this is the right time. We're in kind of a mess." Pepper said.

"Yeah, but maybe that's why it's the best time. 'Cause then we can…" Tony trailed off and noticed that Ellie had started to breathe much quicker. Tony looked to Pepper, who seemed to notice it too before he walked over to her. He put a hand on her uninjured shoulder and shook her awake.

Her eyes shot open and she let out a slight scream, she jumped out of her seat and ran to the bathroom, pushing past Tony on her way.

Tony looked at Pepper with confusion, but Pepper shook her head, she didn't know what was going on either. Tony walked towards the bathroom and knocked on the door, "Ellie, are you okay?" There was no response, but Tony could hear her hyperventilating and crying, he was starting to get a little worried. "Ellie? Ellie, please open the door!"

Ellie was standing in front of the mirror, mentally repeating a mantra, it was just a dream... it wasn't real.

 _When Ellie woke in her dream, she wasn't in the grassy field, as usual, she was standing on a bridge, with flowing rainbow colours running underneath its surface._

 _Loki was standing a distance away from her, but he was facing her with a slightly crazed expression on his face._

 _"Bella, do you believe in me?" He asked. His eyes were glassy, his face was pale and a sheen of sweat covered him._

 _"What? What's going on, I-"_

 _"You don't," He said with a betrayed voice._

 _Ellie didn't really know what to say, "I don't know!"_

 _Loki shook his head, "I'm sorry Bella."_

 _"Sorry for what?" Ellie asked._

 _He shook his head and began to fall backwards, off the bridge and into the deep darkness of space. Ellie reached out after him, and she too began to fall, but before she was completely off the edge, she awoke._

Ellie opened the door to the bathroom and wiped her eyes. She was biting her lower lip as she looked at Tony, "Sorry, you scared me."

"It's fine, it's fine," Tony said, he looked to Pepper, and she seemed to understand that there was about to be a moment, so she left the main cabin. "What was it about?" Tony asked Ellie, she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she readjusted her arm in the sling. "I know a nightmare when I see one."

"It was nothing, it doesn't matter," Ellie responded.

"It matters to me," Tony said, giving her a pointed look telling her that he wasn't going to drop this.

"It's just... that was the first nightmare I've had in... years. Since my parents died actually," Ellie told him.

Tony nodded, "You know, JARVIS has been saying that you've been having a lot of strange sleeping patterns recently. Maybe you're stressed?" Tony suggested.

"MAYBE?!" Ellie shouted. Tony looked around and motioned for her to be quieter. They sat down beside each other. "Maybe? You're about to die Tony! And you aren't allowed to," she said softly, "Everyone I have ever loved has died, and don't you dare go and add yourself to that list." Tony's eyes widened slightly, she loved him? This was something to be happy about, celebrated, but in this context...

"Don't worry about me kid, I'll figure something out. I always do," Tony said reassuringly.

Tony sat beside her in the seat, she rested her head on his shoulder and after a few minutes they were both asleep, and that was how Pepper found them, and how both she and Rhodey had that picture as their home screen on their phones.

As soon as Rhodey got word that Tony and Ellie had landed in Malibu, he went to their house.

"Where is he?" Rhodey asked, both Pepper and Natalie, aka Natasha appeared to be on the phone.

Natalie responded, "He doesn't want to be disturbed."

At the same time, Pepper replied, "He's downstairs."

As Rhodey went downstairs he saw Ellie leaving the workshop.

"Hey Rhodey," Ellie greeted tiredly. She hadn't slept since she woke up from the nightmare on the plane. She was afraid of what she might dream of next.

"Hey Ellie," Rhodey replied, "How's your arm?"

"It's alright, hurts a bit."

Rhodey nodded, "I saw a video of what happened. Nice moves by the way."

"Thanks," Ellie said with a small smile.

"Is Tony down there?" Rhodey asked her.

"Yeah, don't be too hard on him though, he already feels awful," Ellie replied. She yawned and stretched her good arm over her head.

"Get some sleep kid, I'll see you later," Rhodey said to her.

"See ya." She said tiredly.

Ellie went to her room and laid on the bed staring at the ceiling for some time before sleep took her.

 _Her entire dream was foggy, she was falling, and Loki with her..._

 _He was staring at her with shock, "You don't believe me, but yet you're still here?" Ellie found herself unable to reply, the feeling of falling was too much for her. Loki shook his head slightly, "I'm sorry Bella, I shouldn't have brought you into this. Wake up, wake up and forget about me." He kissed her forehead_

 _"I don't want to forget," She gasped_ , and suddenly she woke up.

Ellie simply laid on her bed for a few moments in numbness. She knew it was silly, they were only dreams, but still. Every night since her parents had died in a freak accident she had had these dreams, and she was sad to see them go. The imaginary trickster god in her head had been a constant source of comfort for her over the years, but maybe now that she had people in her life that might fulfil those functions she didn't need him anymore... still, she was upset.

"JARVIS, what time is it?"

"It is 3:57 am miss," JARVIS replied.

Ellie sighed, "Is Tony awake?"

"Yes, he is currently in the workshop," JARVIS replied.

Ellie sighed again, not really wanting to talk to anyone right now. "How much gas is in my car?"

"Only one-eighth of the tanks capacity."

Ellie got out of bed and threw on some clothes, she made her way down to the workshop with her headphones on, hoping Tony would get the 'do not disturb' vibe.

She ignored his questioning gaze as she entered the large room, she pulled up her research into energy prototypes. Much of her research happened to coincide with a Dr. Erik Selvig, and she determined that she must meet up with him to discuss the quantum mechanics associated with the type of renewable energy that she was suggesting.

Ellie sighed, realizing that she wasn't going to get much done tonight she made eye contact with Tony, and she took off her headphones.

"Hey, kid," Tony said, he looked really tired.

"Hey." Ellie said, "I was thinking of staying at the tower for a bit."

"In New York?" Tony asked.

"Yeah," Ellie said, smiling sadly, "I was thinking that you can have some sort of wild party here if you wanted, and then when you're done. You and Pepper could come to New York and-and we could..." she trailed off. She was starting to lose hope, Tony was getting worse by the hour, and he was burning through cores like they were nothing.

"Yeah, that sounds good kid." Tony said, "Are you going to fly out?"

"I was gonna drive," Ellie told him.

"Okay, be safe Ellie."

"You too dad." She said as she left the lab.

Tony's eyes were wide, she just called him dad! Usually, she called him Tony, parental, or dude. Under normal circumstances, he would have celebrated this occasion, but now it seemed pointless.

Ellie drove the rest of the night and all morning, she stopped for a rest in Washington before continuing to New York.

Along the way, she got a call from Pepper telling her what happened at the party.

She constantly had the news playing in the background as she worked, she was up to date on all of Tony's antics.

Pepper and Tony called her after the whole Justin Hammer thing blew over to tell her that they were okay.

It was actually on the plane ride to New York that Pepper and Tony received a phone call from Ellie.

"Ellie, how are you doing kiddo?!" Tony asked happily.

"Really great actually!" She responded, "I've just been asked to consult on a project that SHIELD is overlooking, it's about my energy research and I'll be working with a physicist that I really admire, so I'd like to go if that's okay with you?" She spoke very quickly. Like she always does when she's excited.

"Uh yeah okay," Tony said, kind of taken aback. "Is someone there with you right now?" he asked, barely hearing another voice in the background.

"Yeah, Phil's here."

"Who's Phil?"

"Agent Phil Coulson, remember? He was your babysitter like four days ago." Ellie told him.

"Put him on will you?" Tony asked.

"Sure," Ellie replied and handed her phone to Phil.

"Mr. Stark." Phil greeted.

"Agent." Tony said, "What does this project entail? Exactly."

"It's very classified, however, since you must be aware because of your guardianship over Bellicose, I'll make an exception. I'm sending you the files now."

"Thank you," Tony said.

The phone was passed back to Ellie, "So is that a yes?"

"Yeah sure, go ahead kid."

"Thank you!"

"Will you still be there when we get there?" Pepper asked.

"No, sorry. We're leaving literally as soon as this phone call is done." Ellie told them, "The celebration will have to wait a bit."

"Well, you go have fun, Ellie." Tony said, "Be safe."

"You too. Love you, bye!"

"Love you too, bye kid."


	4. Chapter 4

It had been about six weeks since Tony had found a replacement arc reactor and Ellie had gone off to consult with Sheild. Her shoulder was finally healed, and things were looking better than ever.

Ellie walked into the lab that evening and saw that Barton, or Hawk, as she called him, was also coming in.

"Hey Hawk," Ellie greeted with a smile.

"What's up mini-Stark?" He replied.

She laughed, "Not much."

"Why are you in so late?" He asked. It was nearly midnight, and Ellie usually left around 6pm.

"I got an alert saying some of the readings were a little strange, so I thought I'd check it out. It's probably just the equipment though," Ellie told him.

As she entered the lab area Selvig quickly ran over to her, something was wrong.

"The Tesseract, something's happening with her," Erik told Ellie.

"What's going on?" She asked, quickly throwing her coat over a chair.

"The readings are off the charts, we tried turning off the power, but she turned it back on, I've never seen anything like this."

"I'll check the scanners," Ellie said.

"Ellie, what are the readings over there?" Selvig asked her.

"The same as yours," Ellie replied, "This is not good."

Then, Nick Fury came marching in, "Talk to me, doctor."

Selvig spoke with Fury as Ellie frantically tried to get accurate readings on the Tesseract.

"I'm having problems getting accurate readings through all the interference," Ellie said to Selvig, who had finished talking with Fury.

When Fury arched his eyebrows, Erik added, "Nothing harmful, slight gamma radiation."

"That can be harmful." Fury said, he sighed, "Where's Agent Barton?"

"Up in his nest as usual," Selvig said.

As Fury was speaking quietly to Barton, one of the scientists called, "The energy levels are spiking again!"

Ellie and Selvig ran over to the computer, "Oh no." Ellie muttered.

They watched the Tesseract in anticipation, then a beam of energy flew out of it towards the platform, eventually, a figure could be seen.

Ellie gasped as she recognized who it was, and she froze. This wasn't possible... she was hallucinating, the radiation had gotten to her head. As she looked around and saw that everyone else was staring too, Ellie knew that it was real, he was real. Loki.

Fury motioned for his men to surround him, "Sir, please put down the spear!" He called out to him.

Of course, that was the moment all hell broke loose, Ellie ducked under a desk, she saw Selvig across from her helping up one of the other scientists.

She watched as Hawkeye and Loki began to fight, "You have heart," Loki said. He put the tip of his spear over Barton's heart, his eyes turned black and then became an unnatural blue colour.

Ellie could see Fury trying to take the Tesseract, but apparently so could Loki, "Please don't, I still need that."

"This doesn't have to get any messier," Fury said.

"Of course it does." Loki paused, he made eye contact with Ellie, his cocky smile faltered momentarily. He turned back to Fury, "I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

"Loki? Brother of Thor?" Selvig asked. Ellie's eyes widened slightly as she glanced over to Selvig, she knew that was a touchy topic. She was also wondering how it was that Selvig knew about this, but now was not the time for questions. She looked back at Loki and noticed he did not look the same as he did in her dreams. Here he looked almost sick, his skin was even paler than usual and his speech seemed erratic.

Loki's jaw tightened, but before he could say anything Fury spoke, "We have no quarrel with your people."

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot," Loki responded.

"You planning to step on us?" Fury asked, he put down the case and made eye contact with Ellie, then looked towards the case with the Tesseract, it was clear what he wanted her to do.

As Loki continued to monologue Ellie moved around the outside of the make-shift lab, until she was within a few feet of the case, when Loki was creating more mindless slaves, she grabbed the case and began to walk quickly towards the exit, a chilling voice made her stop, "Bella, don't do that."

Ellie's back was to the rest of them, but they could tell she was thinking about her options. Fury was looking at her curiously, she tilted her head slightly, enough to see Fury nod at her. She took off into a sprint and she heard Fury firing his gun behind her.

Then suddenly she ran into something, or more accurately, someone.

"Bella, give me the case," Loki said.

Ellie let the case go and took a step back from Loki, he raised his sceptre to her neck and held it pointed there. When she looked him in the eyes, and he saw nothing but confusion and fear, he felt... bad. He lowered his staff, "Come with me Bella, I'll explain everything..." He paused, expecting her to say something, but then she kicked him in the stomach, grabbed the case, and threw it towards the door.

Before she could run after it, Loki grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer to him, then she elbowed him in a pressure point in the shoulder, forcing his hand to release her wrist. She sprinted towards the door, picking up the case on her way. But this marvellous escape was cut short by Barton, who had shot an electric arrow into her back.

She let out a strangled scream before she fell to the floor, unconscious, her body still twitching unnaturally.

"Sir, Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow. Drop a hundred feet of raw material, he means to bury us." Barton told Loki in an eerily calm tone. As if he hadn't just shot a girl, that he had known and cared for, in the back.

"Like The Pharaohs of old." Fury said with a smirk. Fury was looking at Loki curiously, the so-called god was staring at the young Stark with what looked vaguely like regret, and were Fury's ears just getting old, or did he call her Bella?

"He's right, the portal is collapsing in on itself. You got maybe two minutes before this goes critical." Selvig added.

"Well then," Loki said. Barton shot Fury, and Loki said to Clint, "Take her with us." Referring to Ellie.

Loki lead the team out of the laboratory area and towards the parking garage, it was a strange sight, Barton carrying Ellie, whose nose was bleeding, followed by Selvig, who was looking a bit too happy.

"What's going on?" Hill asked Clint.

"He didn't tell me," Barton responded casually as he put Ellie's limp body in the back with Loki.

Then over the radio, they could hear Fury say "Hill, do you copy? Barton's turned-"

The noise was overpowered by the noise of gunfire, Loki put his arm over Ellie as they took off with Hill still firing from behind them.

As Hill followed them through the underground tunnel, she just started to realize how serious this was about to get as the tunnel began to collapse around them.

Loki and his new lackeys plus Ellie managed to clear the tunnel and soon became confronted with Fury on a helicopter. Loki stood momentarily to shoot down the helicopter, and he was successful.

Loki smirked at himself, his plan was more than successful, and as the burning remnants of the helicopter faded into the horizon, he knew he got away with it.

He looked down at Ellie, who was lying beside him. He cast an enchantment to stop her nose from bleeding. Loki was wondering why Ellie had not used any of the magical skills he had taught her. Certainly, they would havebeen much more effective... unless... No one knew about her true abilities. This would be interesting, very interesting.

* * *

Phil felt uneasy as he gained access to Stark's elevator, he wasn't sure how he would handle the news that Ellie had been taken by some alien psychopath.

"Security breach!" Tony shouted and turned to Pepper, "That's on you."

"Mr. Stark," Phil said professionally.

"Phil! Come in!" Pepper called, standing to greet him.

"Mr. Stark, I'm afraid that this is very serious and very urgent. It's about your daughter." Phil said, and the mood became serious immediately.

"What?!" Tony snapped.

"There was an incident," Phil held out a thick file to Tony, who took it immediately and opened it.

"Oh my God..." Pepper gasped.

The footage played, the alien man was holding a sceptre to Ellie's throat, and Tony watched on in rage. The man lowered the sceptre and then Ellie started fighting him. It surprised Tony, he didn't know that Ellie knew how to fight like that. She had almost made it, but then someone offscreen shot an arrow at her. It shocked her and she fell to the ground, the case falling out of her hand.

Tony was breathing heavily as he watched them take her, and he swore he would kill each and every one of them.

"Does she know him?" Pepper asked after watching the footage. Coulson looked at her with confusion. "It looked like they were talking."

"I don't think she would be friends with anyone like that Pepper," Tony spoke. Pepper seemed uncertain, after all, this man had not hesitated to kill or... take control of anyone else. But he spoke to Ellie, and he didn't hurt her, at least, not directly.

"I know that this is personal Mr. Stark, but this could have global consequences, we need your help, are you in?" Phil asked.

"Oh, I'm in. That bastard messed with the wrong father." Tony said with an edge to his voice.

"I'll send you the coordinates as soon as we find them," Phil said.

Tony didn't respond, and instead pulled up all the information he could, and started to read.

* * *

In the meantime, Loki had managed to set up some sort of base of operations. Ellie was lying in a cot off to a corner of the warehouse they seemed to be in. She opened her eyes and was momentarily blinded by the bright light hanging overhead.

She groaned as she tried to sit up, her back was killing her, and as she remembered why she grimaced, Tony was going to be mad.

She was wearing a navy blue shirt in replacement of her hoodie she had been wearing earlier, she assumed it had been wrecked by whatever the hell it was that had hit her. She stood and wandered around for a moment until she was spotted by Loki, who briskly walked over to her.

"Ah, Bella, what do you think of my little operation here?" Loki asked smugly.

Ellie stared at him with shock on her face for a few moments before she stood shakily. She looked at him and said, "You're real."

"Well, I think that's quite obvious at this point," Loki said and smiled at her. This was everything he had ever wanted, for her to know he was real, for her to believe in him. Something about it felt wrong though, she wasn't smiling. She always smiled.

"So everything is real, everything you told me?" Ellie asked. Her entire body was shaking, and her eyes were welling up with tears. Loki suddenly realized what this might mean for her. Loki nodded, the smirk falling off his face. "I have-I have... an infinity stone?"

He nodded again and took a step closer to her, "I'm sorry, I-"

Ellie cut him off by turning away. She had all this power, all this time, and she didn't even realize it.

In her mind she flashed back to the night her parents died. She had had a strange dream about what had happened. Or at least she thought it was a dream, but now... now she knew it was real. She could barely recall it, but she did remember the blinding burning sensation of pure energy rushing through her. She remembered trying to hold it in, she remembered failing.

Ellie was now crying, "I killed my parents."

Loki shook his head, "Bella, no you didn't. You must remember, it wasn't your fault."

"I don't remember!" Ellie snapped, turning back to face him.

Her breathing was skipping, and to Loki, she seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack.

He hugged her tightly, "I'm sorry Bella, I'm so sorry."

This took her by surprise, but he felt cool, and even though he had just kidnapped her, she felt comforted by his presence.

Ellie was still confused, there were still a lot of things she didn't understand, but she figured that she had had enough revelations for now.

Speaking of confused, Hawkeye was watching this exchange and was also very confused. How did they know each other? Had this been mini-Stark's plan all along?

"Come with me, I have something to show you," Loki said, pulling away from her. He took her hand and led her to where Selvig was working on the Tesseract.

"Dr. Selvig?" Ellie asked as she saw him.

Erik turned to face her and said, "Stark! I've had a revelation! The Tesseract has shown me so much, it's more than power, it's truth."

Ellie took a step back and turned to Loki, "What did you do to them?" She asked angrily.

Loki looked at her and sneered, "I did what I had to do, you do not know what is at stake."

"Then enlighten me." Ellie and Loki stared down each other until Loki broke the eye contact and sighed.

"Your life," Loki said.

Ellie shook her head, "What do you mean my life?"

"You have what he wants, and he'll have to kill you to take it."

"He?"

"Thanos."

Ellie's blood ran cold, she remembered when Loki told her about 'The Mad Titan', she hadn't ever imagined that anything he had taught her in her dreams was real, but now...

"You're helping the thing that wants to kill me and destroy half of the universe?" Ellie asked hollowly.

"No, it's not like that. If I control Earth I can protect you, I'm not a fool enough to hand him not one but three infinity stones."

"No, but you're fool enough to think you'll win, fool enough to believe that Thanos wouldn't destroy this planet just like the rest of them."

"I won't let him touch you," Loki said with determination and Ellie scoffed.

"You honestly think he'll just stop if he can't find it? He wants them all Loki! He'll kill both of us and burn the planet to ashes to find the soul stone." Ellie was starting to panic again.

"He can't take it from you," Loki told her.

"What?" Ellie asked.

"He can't take the soul stone from you," Loki continued, "To wield that stone you have to pay a price in blood, you can't control it unless something you love is sacrificed. When your parents died, the soul stone fell under your control. Thanos loves nothing, he can't take it from you. The only way to part the stone from you is if he kills you... I won't let that happen." Ellie nodded slightly in understanding. Loki put and hand on her shoulder and completely changed the subject, "Do you want to go to the opera?"

* * *

Merely a minute later Tony got a call, "We've found them, Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse." Phil's voice said over the phone, Tony hung up and leaped into his suit.

Loki and Ellie were standing on the balcony overlooking the opera house, waiting for the doctor to come and make his speech. Ellie was looking at him strangely.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Loki asked her.

"You were right, I didn't think you were real," Ellie replied, "I thought it was just a dream, I should have-."

"It's alright Bella, you couldn't have known," he said sadly. He grabbed her hand as he spotted the doctor, and he pulled her along beside him, he let go to swing his staff at the guard. Ellie hesitantly followed him as he dragged the doctor to a wooden table-like slab.

She looked away as Loki basically ripped out the man's eye out. She felt guilty, she should be doing something, but yet she couldn't will her feet to move.

Once Loki finished, he grabbed her hand and brought her outside with him.

"Kneel before me," Loki commanded the crowd, they didn't. This obviously frustrated Loki, "I said, KNEEL!" he shouted, creating copies of himself all around the crowd. He let go of Ellie's hand as he began to speak to the people, she took a few steps backwards, and she saw that he was not the same. He continued to rant with a crazed look in his eyes, "Is this not simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel." Loki stated, but as he finished an elderly man stood.

"Not to men like you." The man spoke.

"There are no men like me," Loki replied. Ellie took a few steps forward, prepared to intervene.

"There are always men like you." The man said.

"Look to your elder people, let him be an example," Loki said and raised his sceptre.

Ellie ran forward and stood in front of the man, "No!"

"Move Bella," Loki growled.

"No."

They stared at each other for a moment, but then a different man started talking, Ellie didn't recognize his voice, but once she saw him she knew who he was and she let out a sigh of relief.

"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing," Steve spoke, he positioned himself in between Ellie and Loki. He briefly turned to look at Ellie over his shoulder, "Miss."

Ellie bowed her head slightly in respect, "Captain."

"Ah, the solider, a man out of time," Loki said, trying to get a rise out of him.

"I'm not the one who's out of time," Cap said as the quinjet appeared.

"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down." Natasha's voice said from the quinjet speakers.

Loki attempted to blast the quinjet from the sky, but it moved before it got hit. Captain took this opportunity to attack Loki.

Ellie walked a little further away from where they were fighting, Loki appeared to have the upper hand, and he had Captain America on his knees, "Kneel." Loki said angrily

"Not today," Captain replied, flipping around and kicking Loki.

Then suddenly Shoot to Thrill by AC/DC began to play, and Ellie smiled and sighed in relief, knowing who was about to show up.

Tony appeared in his suit, he blasted Loki to the ground and pointed all his guns at him, "Make a move reindeer games." Loki put up his hands in surrender and his armour magically faded away, "Good move." Ellie walked up to Tony and he asked her, "Are you okay Ellie?"

"I'm fine," Ellie replied, giving him a small smile.

"Alright," Tony said as the quinjet landed, "Let's load 'em up."


	5. Chapter 5

They were all on the plane back to the helicarrier, Ellie was strapped into a seat across from Loki, while Tony and Steve spoke, Ellie and Loki just stared at each other. More accurately, Ellie stared curiously and Loki smirked back.

Then all of the sudden a thunderstorm popped up out of nowhere. Loki began to look concerned and Ellie furrowed her eyebrows until she realized what was happening. She quickly unclipped herself from the seat and grabbed one of the support beams above her.

"Ellie, what are you do-" Tony got cut off when there was a loud thump above them, it sounded like something had just landed on top of the quinjet.

They opened the ramp door to see if Tony could see what landed on the jet, then a huge, blonde haired man flew into the jet, Tony tried to blast him, but he knocked Tony down before he had a chance. Ellie jumped to the other side of the plane to avoid Tony and landed right beside Loki, and as Thor walked over and grabbed Loki, Loki grabbed Ellie. Thor flew them all out of the plane.

"Ellie!" Tony called.

"Great, now there's that guy," Steve said, annoyed.

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha asked from the front of the plane.

"Think he's a friendly?" Steve asked.

"Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost." Tony said seriously, "And, that idiot just took my daughter. Again."

Tony was about to jump out and go after them, but first Steve said "Stark! We need a plan of attack!"

"I have a plan," Tony said over his shoulder, "Attack."

Meanwhile, Thor brought Loki and Ellie to the top of a cliff, Loki let go of Ellie's arm, allowing her to drop to the ground before Thor slammed him into the rock.

"Where is the Tesseract?!" Thor demanded.

Loki glanced at Ellie, who had just stood up, he looked back to Thor and laughed, "I missed you too."

"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?" Thor asked angrily.

"Oh, you should thank me. With the Bifrost gone how much dark energy did the Allfather have to muster to conjure you here? Your precious Earth." Loki spat.

"I thought you dead," Thor said, his initial anger wearing off and realizing that he had his brother back.

"Did you mourn?" Loki asked speculatively.

"We all did, our father-"

"Your father," Loki said, he walked in Ellie's direction and as he did he continued to speak to Thor, "He did tell you my true parentage did he not?"

"We were raised together, we played together, we fought together. Do you remember none of that?" Thor asked Loki.

Loki turned sharply, "I remember a shadow. Living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss. I was and should be king!"

"So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights?" Thor asked, "No, the Earth is under my protection Loki," he said.

"Wait!" Ellie spoke for the first time in the conversation. "This may be partially my fault as well." Loki looked at her strangely, and Thor even more so.

"Ah yes, I remember Heimdall telling me to keep an eye out for you. He said you played a special role in this," Thor spoke. "I am Thor, son of Odin." Loki rolled his eyes at this.

"I'm Ellie Stark," she said, "And your brother is trying to protect me in an albeit slightly insane way."

"Not my brother," Loki muttered.

"And what is it about you that would justify this level of protection?" Thor questioned.

"I have an infinity stone," Ellie said.

Thor's eyes widened significantly, "What do you know of this?"

"Everything. Loki's told me everything," Ellie said.

Thor looked at Loki with confusion and then turned back to Ellie, "Which is it?"

"The soul stone."

Thor shook his head, "That is not safe in a mortal's hands." He took a step towards Ellie.

Loki stepped in front of her, "You would do well to stay away from her."

Thor looked between the two curiously, "Loki, why did you not tell me of this?"

"For the same reason why I would not let a single infinity stone fall into Odin's hands," Loki said.

Ellie turned to face him, "Loki, listen to me. All that matters is keeping the stones out of the wrong hands. Work with us, we can help each other. I'm sure if I explain then they'll understand," Ellie pleaded.

Loki looked as if he may be considering it. He took a step closer to Ellie, "Even if I believed that; I've come too far to put your safety in anyone else's hands."

Ellie furrowed her eyebrows, "Loki, what-?" She suddenly couldn't stand up straight, "What did you do?" She fell forward into his arms. Loki had cast a sleeping enchantment on her.

"This is for your own good Bella, trust me..." There was a look of sadness that passed Loki's face. Thor could tell a great deal from that look. He carefully laid Ellie on the ground beside him.

"Brother, we could protect her on Asgard. Bring her with us, come home," Thor pleaded.

"You had nothing but contempt for me before, what makes you think I believe that had changed in my absence?"

"Listen brother-" Thor was suddenly cut off because he was whisked away.

"I'm listening..."

When the fight between Tony and Thor had finished, with Steve's intervention, Tony flew up himself and Steve to the cliff where Loki was sitting calmly.

He saw Ellie lying there and immediately opened his suit and stepped out. He knelt down beside her and was only slightly relieved when he saw the rise and fall of her chest.

"What did you do to her?!" Tony demanded, turning to Loki.

Steve looked down at Ellie, "Is she alright?"

"Relax, she's asleep," Loki replied with nonchalance.

The corner of Tony's mouth twitched in rage, "Then Wake. Her. Up."

"I'd rather not," Loki said with a smirk.

Tony started to walk towards Loki menacingly but then Steve stepped in, "Tony, take Ellie to the Quin jet, I'll watch Loki."

Tony glared at Loki as he stepped back into the suit. He carefully picked Ellie up and flew her to the jet where Natasha was waiting.

"What happened?" She asked Tony.

"Loki did something to her," Tony said. "But we've got him. I'm going back, can you watch her?"

Nat nodded, "Of course."

Tony carefully laid Elie down across the seats before he flew out to go collect Thor, Steve and Loki.

Natasha looked over Ellie, she seemed to be unconscious, but not otherwise harmed. She wondered how the girl knew Loki. Natasha had seen the footage, she had seen the girls face when Loki appeared. The expression of recognition was not lost on Nat, she just hoped that this all worked out for the Stark family.

* * *

They were all back on the helicarrier and Tony was sitting at the meeting table in a silent rage. When Fury walked in, that rage became a lot less silent.

"You said it would be safe! That she would be _safe_!" Tony shouted.

"Your daughter was working on _experimental astrophysics_. The keyword there is _experimental_. You knew the risks, you signed the paperwork," Fury said.

"Well, I'm pretty sure what happens if a god from another dimension kidnaps her and puts her into a coma wasn't covered Fury!" Tony yelled.

Thor was pacing without saying anything thus far, but now he felt he had to intervene.

"It appears that Loki told Lady Stark of his plans, if we can wake her, she may be able to tell us what he is going to do next," Thor said.

"And why would he have told her his plan?" Natasha asked.

"Well, it seems as though they know each other. My brother seems to care a great deal for her safety, and rightly so!" Thor spoke boisterously.

Tony was staring at Thor, "What are you talking about?"

"They seemed to be friends, she defended his motives but clearly did not condone his methods," Thor explained.

Natasha stood, "But how could they have possibly met before?"

"Loki is a very powerful sorcerer, even I do not know the full extent of his abilities."

Tony then stood as well, "I was more worried with what you said about her safety."

Thor looked at Tony strangely, "You are not aware?"

"Aware of what?"

"Of Lady Stark's immense power," Thor said as if it was common knowledge.

Tony and Steve locked confused glances, "What power?"

Thor sighed, they were really asking the wrong person to explain this to them. "Well you see, I don't really know all the details..." He trailed off.

Tony was starting to get angrier and angrier. "So you don't know?" He demanded.

"As I said, either her or Loki may know more," Thor said. He was trying to appease the group assembled in front of him, "She did say how she thought you may side with Loki if you knew the whole story, but she did not explain before my brother caused her to sleep."

Tony shook his head and left the room, marching down the hall to where Ellie was sleeping and being monitored.

He sat down in a chair beside the bed and grasped her hand, "Ellie, if you can hear me, I really need you to wake up and help us out here. I don't know what's going on, and I would really like you to explain it in the strange, round-a-bout way that you usually explain things."

* * *

Thor had gone to speak with Loki about the girl, Ellie.

"Ah, _Odinson_. Have you come looking for the Tesseract once again?" Loki asked with a mischevious grin.

"I am here about the girl," Thor said.

Loki's grin slightly faltered, "What of her?"

"How did you come to know a mortal on Midgard well enough that it would drive you to these lengths to protect her?" Thor questioned with confusion. Loki did not answer, which caused Thor to sigh, "Brother, despite what you might think, I do care. If your true intentions are to protect this girl, then I would like to aid you." Loki again said nothing, and Thor was getting the impression that Loki was not about to divulge any information to him. "Just tell me one thing, will she be okay? Her father is very worried."

Loki did not turn around, but answered: "I would never hurt her."

Thor left Loki to seek out Tony, who was still with Ellie.

"Did your _brother_ say anything?" Tony asked.

"He did not, I am sorry." Tony looked at Thor and found it slightly difficult to be so angry at a man that looked so guilty.

Tony sighed and sat back down in the chair beside Ellie's bed. "So tell me about yourself Thor..."

* * *

A nine hours later...

Tony had fallen asleep in his chair after listening to Thor regale him with tales of his youth. It was the early morning when Tony was awoken with the entire helicarrier shaking, immediately followed by Steve bursting into the room.

"Stark, we're under attack. We need you to fix the rotor-blades," Steve said, slightly out of breath.

Tony glanced between Ellie and Steve, "I-"

"Tony I know you want to be with your daughter, but if you don't help us fix this we're all going to crash into the Atlantic," Steve interrupted.

Tony nodded, squeezed Ellie's hand on more time, and following Steve into the chaotic hallway.

In the meantime...

Loki had just gotten rid of Thor and that pesky Agent Coulson, though the latter wasn't without getting blasted through a few walls. Loki was now on his way to check off the next box on his metaphorical to do list: get Bellicose and get out.

He was well tuned to the specific magical energy that she gave off, so it was no difficulty to find her position on the helicarrier. He waltzed into the room and made the sleeping enchantment he had cast on her dispell.

Immediately, her eyes fluttered open and she let out a sigh as all of her muscles clenched and unclenched. Then she noticed him standing there and she sat up.

"What's going on? Did you tell them what's going on?" Ellie asked him.

Loki smirked slightly, "Not exactly."

Ellie was about to stand when the helicarrier shook again and she fell back onto the bed. She looked at him with a pinch of fear in her eyes that made him want to shrink back. "What did you do?"

Loki shook his head and reached out his hand to her, "We have to go."

"I'm not going anywhere. They need help!" Ellie cried.

"Why are you so insistent on putting yourself in the path of most danger?!" Loki asked, raising his voice slightly.

"Oh really?! My way is the most dangerous?! I'm not the one planning on bringing Thanos right to our doorstep!" Ellie shouted back.

The helicarrier shook again and the lights flickered. Ellie darted up from the bed and tried to make a break for the door, but Loki anticipated this and blocked her way.

"Loki, move," Ellie said through gritted teeth.

"You know I can't."

Ellie ducked down and tried to kick out his legs. Loki dodged and carefully but firmly pushed her back. Ellie ran at him again, unfortunately for her, he quickly foiled her attempt by grabbing her forearms and pinning them to her own chest.

She struggled against him, but her physical strength was nothing compared to a god like Loki.

"Let me go!" Ellie shouted.

"Bella, please, let me help you," Loki pleaded with her.

"I need to help _them_ ," Ellie said, still trying to fight for control of her arms.

"I can't let you."

Then Ellie did something completely unexpected. She tilted her head upwards and kissed him deeply. He was quite surprised by this move and his guard completely dropped, allowing her to quickly break away while simultaneously elbowing him across the face. She then sprinted out of the room in search of the others while Loki found himself kneeling on the floor with a bloody nose.

"Good move," He muttered under his breath.

* * *

Ellie ran down the halls and on her way she ran into Steve.

"Stark! You're awake!" He exclaimed in surprise.

Ellie looked at him with slight confusion, "Sorry, I'm not really sure-" She hadn't yet seen Steve Rogers without the helmet that covered half of his face and she didn't recognize him with how he was dressed right now.

"Oh!" Steve said in understanding, "I'm Steve Rogers. I've heard a lot about you from Tony."

The mention of Tony reminded Ellie of why she had been running in the first place, "Where is he? Is he okay?" She asked Steve.

"Yeah he's-" Steve stopped as they both heard someone trying to break down the door that was across the hallway from them. "Stay behind me," Steve said to her.

Ellie could defend herself, probably better than Steve could, but she did as he said; feeling safer in his shadow. Suddenly, the door broke with a massive bang and came flying off its hinges towards them. Steve barely reacted in time and managed to get both himself and Ellie out of harm's way.

When they turned around, ready to defend themselves, they saw that it wasn't one of Loki's henchmen, but rather Tony.

He was mostly out of his suit, but he still had the hand repulsors on for protection. "Ellie," He breathed.

"Are you okay?" Ellie asked. She took a few steps forward.

"I'm not the one we should be worried about," Tony said, looking her up and down to make sure she was okay. After determining that she was in good condition he said, "I'm gonna kill him."

"Tony, wait. His methods are... awful, true. But his motivations are not entirely wrong. Let me explain, we don't have to be on different sides. It's not too late to stop this," Ellie pleaded.

Steve and Tony looked at her with confusion, "Thor said you might say something like that," Steve said.

"So Thor told you?" Ellie asked.

"No, he just said that you might want to tell us something," Tony said.

"I do, but it's a long, complicated story. We have to secure the helicarrier first," Ellie told them.

Even though Tony wanted to hear what she had to say as soon as possible, what she was saying had some merit to it, so he begrudgingly agreed.

"Okay, Starks, you take the left flank, secure the entry point of Loki's men, and try to stop him from leaving if you can. I'll try and find Natasha and then we'll secure the bridge," Steve explained.

Tony and Ellie nodded and headed towards their destination.

"Are you... mad at me?" Ellie asked quietly.

Tony looked at her with confusion, "No, why would you think that?"

Ellie looked down, "I don't know. I guess because I... Loki and I... we have history."

"History?" Tony questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"He's my friend, we've known each other for a long time," Ellie explained briefly. Upon seeing Tony's slightly stunned face she added: "He isn't usually so..." Ellie gestured to her surroundings.

Tony was trying to be open-minded, but he found himself struggling to imagine Loki in any other role than a villain.

"Why didn't you tell me about any of this?" Tony asked.

Ellie shrugged, "I just figured it was a dream. I mean what else would you call a Norse god from legend showing up when you sleep and telling you that you're special?"

Tony's head whipped around at her, "You needed a crazy god-man to tell you that?"

Ellie looked at him, not quite knowing what to say. However, before either of them was able to say anything they were suddenly being peppered with gunfire. Tony quickly moved both of them out of the line of fire.

They dropped into a sitting position behind a wall, but Tony was certain that they wouldn't have much time, so he sprung into action, blasting the men that had been shooting at them until he was certain that they had all been dealt with. It was only in the following silence that Tony heard the desperate gasping, hiccuping breaths from behind him.

There was blood smeared on the wall behind Ellie, and a growing puddle that was forming beneath where she was sitting.

"Ellie!" He shouted. He dove towards her while simultaneously going onto his comm. "Help! I need help!" He shouted frantically. He was trying to put his hands over her wound to stop the bleeding.

"Stark! What happened?" Rogers answered over the comms.

"It's Ellie, she's hurt! She got shot!"

There was a brief moment of silence, "A medical team is coming to you Tony, just try and stop the bleeding."

Tony was desperately trying, but it seemed like the flow of blood never ever slowed. Ellie never made a sound the entire time, except for her breathing. He knew that she was in shock.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Just hold on Ellie," Tony said. He didn't know what was worse, having to wait what felt like an eternity for someone to come and help them, or the person who showed up.

"Step away from her," Loki's voice demanded.

Tony turned his head and saw the god standing behind him with a cut lip and a bloody nose.

"How about you stay away!" Tony growled back, "This is your fault!"

Loki's eyes flared in rage, "I told her not to trust you! I told her that you couldn't protect her!"

"It was your men who did this!" Tony shouted back.

Tony still had a hand repulsor on one hand, and he had it charged and ready to use on Loki. He raised his hand and heard the familiar hum of the repulsor about to fire. At the last second, Tony felt a warm, wet hand lightly grip his arm. "Don't," Ellie gasped out. Her bloody hand gripping Tony's arm as tightly as she could. Tony stared at her for a moment in disbelief, but then lowered his hand. She then looked over at Loki and spoke softly, "Loki, help me."

Tony looked at her with a hint of betrayal in his eyes, but as Loki approached, Tony stepped aside. He stood and wondered what Loki could possibly do, and he was more than surprised when Loki gently placed one hand on Ellie's face, and the other over her stomach. Loki said something to her quietly that Tony couldn't hear, but he saw Ellie's head nod slightly.

Then Loki pressed his hand onto her abdomen, causing Ellie to gasp. But instead of pulling away from him, she leaned into his body, her hand gripping his. After a few moments of this, Ellie slumped forward into Loki's arms, which caused Tony's eyes to darken.

"What did you do?" He demanded.

"It'll take me hours to fully heal her," Loki said. The two men locked eyes, the implication of Loki's words was left unspoken. He was offering Tony a choice, and in his silence, Tony made that choice. Loki picked Ellie up carefully and looked at Tony one last time before turning away.


	6. Chapter 6

Ellie blearily opened her eyes and saw familiar surroundings, it was her bedroom in Stark Towers. For a few moments, she thought that the events of the past few days had just been a continuation of her dreams. She was wearing one of her tank tops and some sweatpants. As she sat up and felt no pain, she looked down at her stomach and rolled up her shirt slightly, noticing a large scar that appeared to be mostly healed. It was then she realized that everything that had happened was real.

Ellie pushed the blankets off of her and sat on the edge of her bed, then she noticed that Loki was standing in the door looking at her with concern. She quickly looked away from him and looked down at the floor, her breath caught in her throat as the memory of what had happened replayed again in her mind. She had never felt pain like that before.

She looked up at him, "Thank you." Loki looked away, "If you hadn't come for me I'd be dead."

He uncertainly walked towards her and sat beside her on her bed. He looked at her and he felt something he hadn't really felt much before; regret. "We'll call it even, given that I'm the only reason they were there in the first place."

A silence fell over the two of them. Ellie was thinking about what was going to happen next.

She turned to Loki, "We should go."

Loki looked at her with confusion, "What?"

"I think that we should go, just you and I. We have three infinity stones, and we can outrun him," Ellie said softly.

"Bella, we've come too far down this road to turn back now," Loki replied.

"Do you mean you?" Ellie asked with a furrowed brow. "You've chosen to go to the one place I can't follow you. Why?"

"I'm trying to do what's best," Loki said. He was beginning to become frustrated.

"How is this what's best?!" Ellie demanded. She stood and turned to face him, "How can you simultaneously be the most stupid and the smartest man I know?"

Loki stood as well, and then promptly left the room. Ellie followed him. "What are you doing Bella?"

"I'm trying to get some reason into your head Loki!" Ellie looked at him sadly, "Because you're right, I'm not safe here... and I don't think you are either."

Loki took a step towards her, "You're safe with me."

Ellie took a step towards him and shook her head slightly, "You aren't safe with you, Loki."

They stared into each other's eyes. Ellie placed a hand on his arm, and after a few moments, Loki pulled her in tightly to him. "You're right," he said softly in her ear. She pulled away to look at him with surprise. "We should go, now. I built a failsafe into the device housing the Tesseract, you should be able to shut it down." Ellie nodded. She turned, only to be pulled back. "Wait, I have something for you."

Loki muttered something under his breath and waved a hand over her. Ellie's clothes began to transform into a bodysuit. On the top, it was long sleeved with a high neck, and there were light metal plates on her forearms. On the back of the top there was draping fabric, but hidden in it was a long sheath, and within that was an ornate sword. On the bottom, the pants also had a loop of fabric, and concealed within was three small throwing knives and a beautifully crafted dagger. The fabric for the whole thing was a gentle orange with bright blue flecks throughout, it looked like her eyes in reverse.

"What's this?" Ellie asked with a smile.

"Armour," Loki replied with a smirk. "Now go, stop Selvig, and I will make a plan."

"Wait," Ellie said. She darted into a side room and came back with two ear-pieces. "Here, so we can communicate." Loki nodded as they both put them in their ears.

Ellie nodded and went off towards where she knew Selvig to be. She ran through the halls and came out on the terrace where she knew Selvig was putting the final touches on the device that would open the portal.

"Dr. Selvig!" Ellie called out to him.

Selvig turned to face her, "Ah Stark," he greeted.

Ellie then noticed something... his eyes... something was wrong.

"Loki, come here quickly, something isn't right," Ellie said into her comm.

"I'm coming," Loki replied quickly. It was easy for him to imagine all the terrible things that were happening, but none of them quite came close to what he saw when he came out onto the terrace and saw that Ellie had drawn her dagger and was watching Selvig with a terrified expression. Loki soon knew why, when Selvig spoke with the voice of Thanos.

"Ah, I see what's going on here..." Selvig, Thanos' vessel, spoke. "You two think you can outsmart me. Well, you're wrong."

Suddenly, a wave of energy burst from Selvig's body, knocking both Ellie and Loki to their backs painfully.

When Loki blearily opened his eyes, he saw Selvig walking towards Ellie, who was just coming to. He noticed that one of her throwing knives was lying on the ground not too far from him. He got up as quickly as his winded lungs would allow him and grabbed the small knife.

He threw it at Selvig just as he was standing over Ellie. He didn't seem to react and continued his planned course of action.

Selvig picked Ellie up by the throat, luckily, her fight or flight instincts kicked. She kicked out and managed to hit his chest hard enough for him to drop her. He then reached into his back and pulled out the dagger. Loki was at Ellie's side in a second, but he was unneeded. She put up her arms in an x and a light orange shield formed around the two of them, as the knife hit it, it bounced back and lodged itself into the gravel beneath their feet.

She broke the cross of her arms, and a similar wave of energy radiated, stunning Thanos/Selvig and knocking him back where he hit his head on the edge of the terrace and was unconscious.

Ellie was slightly weakened by the expenditure of energy as she hadn't ever used her power in real life before this. Nonetheless, Ellie continued to go with her and Loki's original plan, take the Tesseract and run. She started to approach the Tesseract when Loki spoke from behind her.

"Bella, wait." Ellie turned to face him in confusion. "He was in Selvig's head."

Ellie looked at him strangely, "Yes," She agreed.

"He was under the control of the mind stone in the sceptre," Loki stated. He was acting as if what he was trying to tell her was obvious.

"I don't understand."

"Thanos gave _me_ the sceptre, which means that it's likely that he's inside my head as well," Loki said.

Ellie looked at him with shock and confusion, "But... how? Couldn't you feel him? And why would he have let you get this far? Wouldn't he have wanted you to take me to him? Or kill me?"

Loki looked off into the distance, "I think the magical interference that you give off, it blocks whatever sorcerer that is truly in control of the in stone now," Loki paused, "There is also the fact that there are a few gaps in my memory."

Ellie took a step closer to him, "Why didn't you tell me? Or even Thor?"

"Because I don't believe there's anything you could do about it," Loki paused, "And I didn't want to concern you more than I already had... or my brother," Loki said the last part quietly.

"But I thought you said that my presence interferes with it. So why didn't you just keep me with you all the time?" Ellie questioned, desperately trying to understand Loki's reasonings.

"Because it wasn't safe... and you did keep running away from me," Loki said with a smirk, trying to lighten the mood. It wasn't particularly effective.

Ellie turned and started to pace, "So what do we do?" She asked him.

"We let events play out as they would have," Loki said.

Ellie stared at him like he was insane, which he might have been. "What?"

"The invasion goes on, it fails, you take the Tesseract and the sceptre, and Thanos has lost the only two infinity stones he possessed."

Ellie shook her head, "You're missing one thing."

"And what's that?"

"You might win."

Loki chuckled and shook his head, "No, I don't think that's very likely at all."

"And why not?"

"Because I don't want to win. The only prize Thanos wants here is you, but you are the only thing that he can't get through me," Loki explained.

Ellie nodded slightly, then turned to look at the city skyline, "What about all of these people. If the invasion happens here... millions could die."

"What are they compared to the trillions of lives that could be lost if Thanos gets his hands on the infinity stones?" Loki countered.

Ellie shook her head, "I'm not trading all of these people's lives of mine." She turned to face him again. "I still don't really understand why we can't just go. If all it takes is to be near you, then I think we can manage."

Loki shook his head, "Bella, we can't always be right beside each other. What if something happens and we get split up?"

"Then I'll find you," Ellie said without hesitation.

Loki looked at her strangely. He didn't know what gave her the amount of trust in him that she had, but he was too far gone for redemption, he wasn't going to let her put herself in danger for him.

He turned his back to her, not wanting to see her face when he betrays her trust again. "I'm sorry Bella," He said.

Ellie furrowed her eyebrows, "Wha-" She was cut off when a wave of dizziness passed over her. "No, don't-" She couldn't finish what she was going to say. She fell to her knees and soon after to her side as well.

Loki didn't watch as his spell took hold but turned around once it was over. Ellie was laying on her side in the gravel that covered the rooftop. He briefly glanced over to Selvig and notice that he didn't notice any magical presence, maybe the hit to the head did the trick. He left them both there, he figured that it would look like Ellie and Selvig had defended the Tesseract to the best of their abilities against Loki. He didn't want Ellie implicated in what he was about to do.

Loki activated the portal and as he looked into the sky, he noticed that he could see Stark heading towards them. He walked back into the penthouse and awaited the arrival of Ellie's adoptive father.

* * *

Tony was approaching Stark Tower when Jarvis spoke to him, "Sir, I appear to have located Ellie."

"Where is she?" Tony asked.

"She is unconscious on the terrace with Dr. Selvig, it seems like there was a fight."

"Is she injured?" Tony asked.

"It does not appear so, however, Dr. Selvig has a non-life-threatening injury to his back."

"And where's Loki?"

"He appears to be waiting in the penthouse."

Tony continued on his course, for the moment, if she wasn't injured, Ellie could wait.

As he went through the automated process of removing his suit and eyed Loki, who was staring out of the window at the New York skyline.

Tony walked into the penthouse and stared at Loki, who stared right back. Tony then walked over to the bar and poured himself a drink. When he was done, he downed it all in one go before stalking towards Loki.

"So I have one question for you," Tony started, "Why does my daughter think that if we spoke we would work together?"

Loki smirked, "Oh, is that what she said?"

"Yes," Tony said slightly angrily, "It is."

Loki looked at Tony for the first time in their conversation, and Tony was surprised to see how un-evil looking he was when he wasn't covered in blood.

"How much do you know about the circumstances of the deaths of Bellicose's parents?" Loki asked, turning back to the window.

Tony furrowed his eyebrows, "She told me that they died in a gas leak."

"The true story is that she came into the possession of... one of the most powerful objects in the universe. That power fused itself to her soul and that process resulted in a major explosion," Loki said.

Tony wasn't really sure what to make of it, and he wasn't convinced that Loki wasn't either lying or joking.

"And what does this have to do with you?" Tony questioned.

"I detected the output of energy and found out it had come from a human, so I..." Loki trailed off for a moment, trying to think of how to phrase it so that he would understand.

"What did you do?" Tony asked impatiently.

"I... fused our consciousness into a small, alternate dimension," Loki said. Tony blinked. "I spoke to her while she was asleep."

Tony began to pace, "So you still haven't answered my first question, why does she think we are on the same side?"

"Because we are on the same side, but we have different ends in mind and are willing to go to drastically different means to achieve them," Loki said.

Tony then noticed something, the cadence and rhythm of his speech, it reminded him a lot of Ellie. Obviously, Loki had had a great influence on her, or perhaps it was the other way around.

"You aren't here to hurt her." It wasn't so much of a question as it was a statement. Loki nodded in response. "Then... what are your ends?"

Loki chuckled slightly, "Well that is the question isn't it?" Tony looked at Loki strangely, "It's come to my attention that not all of my actions have been within my direct control."

"And what's that supposed to mean?!" Tony demanded. He was sick of Loki's elegant language and half-answers, he just wanted it straight. Were they on the same side or not?

"It means that I'm under the control of someone far more powerful than I, and whose only goal is to take back the power that he feels Bellicose stole from him," Loki said.

"So what you did to Barton and Selvig has also been done to you by someone else?" Tony asked.

"Yes."

"Then shouldn't you also be acting all strange and puppet-like?"

"The considerable distance and... other factors have meant that I am slightly less affected. Either way, there is only one conclusion to this story."

"Let me guess, you conquer the Earth?"

Loki smirked and shook his head, "Rather the opposite actually. I would prefer it if you were the ones who won."

Tony looked at the man like he was crazy. He was about to ask another question when he heard an inhuman roar from the sky above. Loki's face grimaced.

"What was that?" Tony asked.

"The invasion has begun," Loki replied.

Tony took a step forward, "I thought you said that you didn't want to fight?!"

"I said I didn't want to win, there is a sizeable difference between the two. You need to prove to Thanos that you can repel an onslaught such as this. It will make him more hesitant to attack next time."

"If you unleash an army here million's will die!" Tony shouted. For the moment, he was ignoring Loki's certainty when he said that there would be a 'next time'.

Loki sighed, "That's what Bellicose said as well, hence why I had to make sure that she wouldn't intervene... It seems you also give me no choice." Loki pointed the sceptre at Tony's heart... and nothing happened.

"Well, performance issues... pretty common... one in five-" Tony mocked until Loki grabbed him in a chokehold.

"You'd best start to gather your forces Stark, and stop making me feel like I've made the wrong decision," Loki all but growled. He tossed Tony to the ground and walked towards a window that broke in the fight between Ellie and not-Selvig. He looked back at Stark one more time, "And... whatever happens, keep Bella safe."

Tony stared at Loki with confusion as he began to fall back out the window. Tony scrambled to his feet and peered down to see if the so-called god had met his match in the concrete 40 stories below. He then saw Loki flying off with what seemed like a bunch of aliens and he rolled his eyes, "Bastard," Tony muttered.


	7. Chapter 7

Nick Fury had always been wary of the young Stark, from the first time Selvig had said that they should bring Stark into the Tesseract project, Fury had been wary. Of course, he had kept an eye on the girl ever since she had been adopted by Tony.

What made Fury so unnerved was that he had actually encountered her before. Not in the flesh, but she had hacked into SHIELD's servers on several occasions. When Fury's men had tried to find out anything about her, they failed spectacularly. Fury hadn't even known that it was her until she told him when he first met her.

There were too many unknowns to Bellicose Stark. The circumstances of the girl's life were too mysterious, and Fury couldn't be certain that they weren't dealing with someone who had been trained at a young age like Romanoff.

Coulson had taken an instant liking to Ellie. He thought that she was a smart kid with a good head on her shoulders. He was absolutely sickened when he watched the footage of what had happened during the Tesseract incident.

Fury and Coulson had been sitting at a table, watching the security footage.

"I didn't know the kid knew how to fight like that," Coulson said sadly, "She gave him a run for his money."

"Did she? Or did he let her?" Fury questioned.

"What are you saying?"

"Did you hear what he said to her? He called her Bella. He knew who she was already."

"But that doesn't mean-"

"I know it isn't hard evidence that she has been helping him all along, but it is certainly suggestive," Fury spoke.

Coulson still wasn't so sure. Ellie was a good kid, she wouldn't be a part of anything like this.

After the helicarrier, Fury gathered Natasha and Clint to brief them on a potential situation.

"Barton, Romanoff, I know that you both have relationships with Bellicose Stark," Fury began.

Clint's eyes went wide, "What happened to her? Is she okay?" He asked.

"She was shot," Clint and Nat's hearts dropped, "And she was re-taken by Loki. We don't know her current whereabouts or condition." Fury paused and was mildly surprised to see the reactions of his best agents being so emotional. "What I'm about to show you... well... you're going to need to judge this information impartially."

Romanoff and Barton looked at each other with concern. The security camera footage began to play on the screens in front of them.

They saw Ellie attempting to get through the door of the infirmary room she had been in when she was under Loki's sleeping enchantment. "Loki, move," Ellie said through gritted teeth.

"You know I can't." Barton shivered at the sound of Loki's voice.

Ellie ducked down and tried to kick out his legs. Loki dodged and carefully but firmly pushed her back. Ellie ran at him again, unfortunately for her, he quickly foiled her attempt by grabbing her forearms and pinning them to her own chest.

Romanoff and Barton watched with bated breath, they were both expecting him to do something to her, hurt her. But he never did, he simply held here there.

"Let me go!" Ellie shouted.

"Bella, please, let me help you," Loki pleaded with her. Nat and Clint shared confused looks.

"I need to help _them_ ," Ellie said, still trying to fight for control of her arms.

"I can't let you."

Then Ellie did something completely unexpected. She tilted her head upwards and kissed him deeply. He was quite surprised by this move and his guard completely dropped, allowing her to quickly break away while simultaneously elbowing him across the face. She then sprinted out of the room in search of the others while Loki found himself kneeling on the floor with a bloody nose.

The video cut off and left Nat and Clint stunned.

"Clint..." Natasha started, staring at Clint with a broken heart.

Clint seemed to be in a state of denial, "No, she just did that to get away."

"Then why did he not seem surprised by it?" Fury asked.

"Because he's a sick bastard! I don't know!" Clint shouted and stood up. He rubbed his jaw, "She didn't..." He was breathing heavy, "I don't know."

* * *

"So, you're Stark's daughter?" Clint asked the new girl, Ellie.

He had snuck up behind her, intending to see how she reacted when she was scared. He was sorely disappointed by her reaction.

"Yep, that's me..." She said quietly, her hands were still diligently typing on the keyboard in front of her. When she was finished, she turned around in her chair. "Sorry, just wanted to finish that."

Clint looked at her with confusion, "I was kind of hoping to scare you."

Ellie laughed a little, "Well, I could see your reflection in the computer screen." Clint nodded with a grin.

"I'm Clint," He said.

"Ellie."

* * *

"So, kid, tell me something," Barton said in between bites of a sandwich, "I looked into your records," He paused as he took another bite. Ellie took a sip of water and raised an eyebrow, "And I found nothing." He took another bite, "Absolutely nothing." Bite.

Ellie shook her head a little, "Typical spy. Trying to dig through every possible barrier to find answers to questions that you could've just asked me."

"So I can ask you questions?"

"Sure, if you want."

Barton took the final bite of his sandwich, "So, how'd you get so good with computers?"

Ellie shrugged a little, "I don't know, I'm good with numbers and math, always have been. It wasn't that much of a jump," Ellie paused, "That's a bad question, it's like asking you how you became so good at archery."

Barton smiled, "Okay, so what should I ask?"

"Well, maybe you should start with what you wanted to ask me when you first brought up my past."

"And what's that?"

" _How_?" Ellie said with a bemused smile, " _How_ did you find nothing?"

Barton chuckled, "And _how_ did you know that that was what I wanted to ask?"

"Well isn't that what you were trying to get at when you asked me about computers?"

Barton put his hands up, "You got me. So how did I find nothing?"

"Because I destroyed it," Ellie replied calmly.

Barton started to laugh hysterically, "Wh-wha-what?!" He gasped in between laughs. The others in the room began to stare at him, which was when he decided to reign it in. He looked up and saw her serious expression, "I... I don't really understand..." He looked straight at her again with a very concerned expression this time, "Wait... really?" Ellie nodded. "Why?"

Ellie looked down for a moment, "Um... I guess... By the time I had found out what happened... I guess I just thought that there was no point staying there."

Clint frowned, "But that doesn't really answer that question. Your choice of words was interesting, destroy. Sort of implies malice."

Ellie's expression faltered for a moment, "Did you... did you find something... that you're not telling me about?" At the strange look on Barton's face, she quickly and immediately backpedalled. "Sorry, of course you didn't," Ellie laughed, but it was hollow, "Just me being paranoid."

Barton frowned even more. Why did she think that he would find something about her past life that would suggest her having a negative relationship with her parents... unless? "Stark, you and your parents-"

"Sorry, I've been having lunch for like two hours now. I definitely have things I need to be doing," Ellie said hurriedly. She stood from the table they were sitting at and rushed off.

The next day Barton went to find Ellie, to apologize. He was surprised when she beat him to the punch.

She was sitting impatiently at her usual lunch table, she looked up and smiled at Clint as he approached.

"Hi," She said. "Before you say anything, I wanted to apologize and answer your question."

"You don't have to."

"No, I-" She paused and gestured for him to sit, "My parents and I... we didn't know a lot about each other... It was my- is my biggest regret, not telling them about me... and I don't remember what happened, but I feel guilty. So I guess the reason that I destroyed everything is because I wanted to leave it all behind and move on." Barton looked at her softly, "I just wanted to let you know, because I know Fury thinks I'm a spy or a liar and I just didn't want you to think that."

Clint knew that that must have been hard for her, so he decided to lighten the mood. "Well, what's wrong with being a spy?" Clint asked with a laugh. "But seriously, Fury is just paranoid."

Ellie also laughed, "Thanks."

Barton then leaned in and quietly asked, "Hey, so you said that you can completely get rid of files?"

Ellie looked at him strangely, "Yes..."

"Okay... would you mind helping me out with something real quick?" Barton asked.

"Sure."

They got up and Barton led her to the fairly empty lab where he gestured to a computer. "Okay, you can't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you."

"I promise," Ellie said.

"So, I have a family, completely off the grid, but I'm worried that if someone hacks into Shield's servers, they might be in danger," Barton explained quietly, not wanting anyone to hear what he was saying. Ellie smiled widely as he told her.

Ellie nodded and looked over her shoulder at the others in the lab, "Keep an eye out, we don't want Hill or Fury walking in on this." She made alarmingly quick work of Shield's security measures, and within a few minutes she turned to him again, "There wasn't much, but I got rid of everything that was there."

"Thanks, little Stark."

"No problem bird-boy."

* * *

Natasha had obviously seen a lot of Ellie when she was pretending to be Tony's assistant, but the girl had never really interacted with her, so she couldn't say that her and Ellie were very close. However, that was going to change when she came to Shield to touch-base with Barton about her previous mission. Nat found Barton chatting at a table in the lunchroom with Ellie, who she was surprised to see.

She walked up to the pair, who seemed to be laughing about something.

"Hey, Nat," Clint greeted, "This is mini-Stark."

"Oh we've met before, she was spying on Tony during his mid-life crisis, probably saved his life too," Ellie said with a smile.

"Good to see you again Ellie, I didn't know that they had brought you in on this," Nat said.

Ellie shrugged, "Well, they needed someone to get things done around here." All three of them laughed.

They spent the next few days in each others company, and Natasha was beginning to see why Clint was so fond of Ellie. Mostly, she could be described in one word... Kind. Ellie didn't seem to care that Natasha had spied on her family, or killed hundreds. In fact, the only person Ellie was not unconditionally kind to was Fury, and for good enough reason. The man clearly didn't trust her, for no apparent reason other than the avoidance of her past.

* * *

Fury wasn't exactly happy at the proof that Ellie Stark was untrustworthy, but he did feel vindicated. He had always been sure that the girl was hiding something bigger than she was letting on.

"So... what does this mean?" Natasha asked.

"It means that Bellicose might be a threat, and if she aids Loki, or prevents anyone from stopping him... you will have to intervene," Fury spoke.

Barton shook his head, "No, I'm not touching that girl."

"Fury, don't you think this is going a little far? We don't know what their relationship is!" Natasha protested.

Fury sighed and put his hands on the table, "Are you willing to take that risk?"

Barton stood and shook his head again, "This is unbelievable. I don't care how they know each other. Hell, I don't even care if she's been working with Loki this whole time. If you, or anyone else, lays a hand on her I'll put an arrow through your eye."

* * *

Barton and Natasha were nearly at Stark Tower with the Quin Jet when all of the sudden, something caught Barton's eye.

"Nat, take control," He said as he pressed the button that opened the rear hatch.

"What are you doing?!" Nat shouted over the noise of the engines as the hatch opened.

"I see Ellie," Clint replied and pointed to the terrace where she was lying unconscious.

Nat stood and grabbed Barton's arm, "Wait, let me go, I don't know how to land this thing."

After a moment, Barton nodded and Natasha walked to the back of the plane where Cap was wondering what the heck was going on.

"Where are you going?" Steve called.

"Ellie's down there, it looks like she might be hurt," Natasha responded.

Steve nodded before asking, "Do you want me to come with you?"

"No," Nat shook her head, "You need to help with the whole alien problem." Steve nodded and watched as Natasha jumped out of the back of the quin jet over the terrace.

When she landed she quickly ran over to Ellie and checked that she was breathing. She gave Clint a thumbs up, and then he flew off.

"Come on kid, wake up," Natasha said quietly to herself. But it seemed like no matter what Natasha did, Ellie wouldn't wake. Maybe Loki had put her under another sort of sleeping enchantment? Natasha then saw bruises on her neck and became enraged. Had Loki tried to choke her to death? Natasha went onto her comm, "What's going on out there?"

Tony replied first, "A shitload of aliens."

Followed by Steve, "Ninth street is completely overrun."

Clint, "What Stark said." There was a pause, "Is Ellie alright?"

"She won't wake up, and it looks like someone choked her," Natasha said.

Barton didn't reply, instead, he started to put a little vigour into killing the Chitauri.

Meanwhile, Tony was struggling internally with whether or not he should share what he learned in his little heart-to-heart with Loki. Eventually, he decided that it would be the best for Ellie if he kept it quiet for now.

The battle went on its destructive path, and it seemed as though they were all beginning to lose hope that they would win, even Tony, who was now beginning to wonder if Loki had just said all that just to throw Tony off.

However, just as they were all about to face another wave of aliens, who else but Bruce shows up, riding a dinky little scooter and pants at least two sizes too big.

With the arrival of the Hulk, the tides began to turn a little, but the battle was far from over. It was when the Hulk managed to smash Loki, that things began to look up.

* * *

Ellie awoke with a very sore throat and a very confused head. What had just happened? She remembered talking to Loki, and then- the invasion! Ellie looked around and saw the devastation all around her.

She was absolutely horrified, she couldn't believe that Loki actually did something like this. She glanced over to her side and saw that the Tesseract was still there, powering the portal. Loki had told her that she was able to stop it.

Quickly, she made her way to the machine. There seemed to be an energy shield around it, and Ellie assumed this was the part that she could get through. She reached out and grabbed the Tesseract, but she quickly recoiled. Ellie wasn't sure if her body could handle the energy of the Tesseract, besides, she already had the power of one infinity stone. So she figured that it would be for the best if she didn't make direct contact with it. She rolled up her sleeves onto her palms and tried again.

This time, she was very careful to not let the Tesseract touch her skin. As soon as she had removed it from the barrier, she quickly dropped it to the ground, it had been burning her through the material. She looked up and saw that the portal had collapsed, she smiled and re-tuned her earpiece to match up with the others'.

"I closed it, it's over," Ellie said tiredly through the comms.

"Ellie?!" Steve asked in surprise.

"It's not quite over yet kid, Shield decided to send in a nuke, I was going to put it in the portal. Do you think you could re-open it?" Tony asked through the comms.

Ellie looked at the Tesseract on the ground beside her, and then looked up into the sky. SHe thought that it was possible to channel the energy through herself, but she wasn't sure if it would be at all stable. "Yes... but not for long."

"Good, I'm gonna fly it in, deliver it right to their doorstep," Tony said.

"Dad, but you could-"

"I know kid, it's okay."

Ellie had no words, "I'll keep it open for you, I will."

"Listen, I love you Ellie, but the last thing that this city needs is nuclear fallout raining down on them. When the bomb goes off, close the portal. I love you."

"I love you too," Ellie said, desperately trying to hold back sobs.

The other listeners on the line, Steve, Nat and Barton, were also beginning to get emotional.

Ellie got to her knees and, after taking a deep breath, grabbed the Tesseract with her bare hand. She could _feel_ where it had been open to, and she channelled the energy through herself and into the sky, reopening the portal. She felt like her whole body was on fire. If she thought that getting shot was painful... it was nothing compared to this.

She tried to contain it, but she couldn't stop the screams that tore from her throat. What she forgot to do was turn off the comm, and so she didn't know that everyone else could hear her.

"Ellie?! Ellie?!" Tony called over the screams from the comms. He wanted to turn back, to see what was happening to her, but he was just about to enter the portal, and as much as it pained him, he knew that this needed to be done.

Tony wasn't the only one trying to get through to Ellie. Natasha and Barton desperately made their way to the Tower. Along the way, her screams became weaker and weaker, turning into sobs of agony. Tony still hadn't come out yet.

Nat and Barton finally reached the top of the tower, but by then they were too late. Ellie's comm went silent, and the portal had closed. Neither of them could see if Stark had made it out.

They found Ellie lying in an awkward position on the terrace with her legs under her, but her back on the ground. The Tesseract was laying beside her, just out of reach of her hand, and it was... empty. There was no colour to it, no blue glow... nothing.

Clint picked Ellie up and carried her inside while Nat inspected the scene. Dr. Selvig had a small knife in his back, but he seemed okay, he was breathing, and it didn't seem like he had lost much blood. She bent down to pick up the tesseract. She was expecting it to burn her, or it to hurt, but nothing happened.

Natasha walked inside and saw Clint laying Ellie on a couch. She also noticed the broken concrete floor where Loki was currently lying unconsciously.

"Clint," She said and got his attention. "Look." She held out the empty Tesseract in her hand.

Clint stared at it with wide, questioning eyes, "Tasha... how?" He asked. Nat shook her head and shrugged, she didn't have the answer. Clint turned to look at Ellie, "What did she do?"


	8. Chapter 8

It had been three days since the attack on New York ended, and Ellie still hadn't woken up. Natasha and Barton had explained to everyone what they had seen, but it was when they watched the security footage that they were all shocked. Jarvis pointed something out, "Sir, look at her eyes as she touches the Tesseract."

Everyone paid close attention. Ellie had the most peculiar orange flecks over her dark blue eyes that formed almost a ring around her pupil. When Ellie came into contact with the Tesseract, suddenly light blue flecks, the same colour as the Tesseract began to form another ring in her eyes. Near the end, it seemed as if her eyes began to glow with power and energy, and then she passed out.

Tony suddenly wished that Thor hadn't managed to get his father to find a different way to bring them home. He would have had some questions for Loki.

Bruce and Tony were currently acting as doctors, seeing as they couldn't just take her to a hospital under these circumstances. The whole team was helping out, with all of them staying in Stark Towers. Steve, Tony, Natasha and Clint were all eating breakfast while Bruce was changing Ellie's IV drip when they heard Bruce call "Tony?!" Uncertainly.

Tony, followed by the others immediately jumped up to see what was going on, and when Tony entered the room two things, one, that everything in the room, plus Bruce, was floating, and two, he was also floating. There were also some small objects around the room that would disappear from where they had been floating, only to immediately re-appear across the room.

"What the-" Clint started, but then stopped when he too began to float.

Soon everyone was floating in the room, "Uh, Tony has this sort of thing happened before?"

Tony gave a halfhearted glare towards Bruce, "Oh yeah all the time," He replied sarcastically.

"Okay, does anyone have any ideas?" Steve asked, but before anyone could answer Ellie started to move.

She seemed to let out a breath and everything slowly went back to the ground.

Ellie sat up and took a deep breath out, she opened her eyes. The ring of light blue was still there.

Tony quickly went over to her and said, "Ellie, are you alright?"

"I..." Ellie trailed off and looked at each of them with confusion, "What's going on?"

Tony glanced around, and said, "Doesn't matter. Are _you_ okay?"

"Yeah I think-" she was cut off when she suddenly disappeared and then reappeared on the other side of the room, she looked around in shock, "What the hell was that?" She asked.

"You don't know?" Steve asked.

"Why would I know, this has never-" She disappeared, but this time she wasn't in the room.

"Jarvis, where's Ellie?" Tony asked, slightly panicked.

"She's on the roof, sir."

Tony quickly ran to the elevator and shut the door before the rest of the Avengers could come. He knew that Ellie didn't like to be stared at.

The door opened and he went up the one flight of stairs and opened the door to see Ellie sitting up against the railing. She had once told him that she liked to sit up here because the height would scare her and she would stop thinking about whatever had been bothering her. Tony could tell that it wasn't working.

"Hey, kid," Tony said.

"I'm sorry, I should have just told you everything once I found out it was all true," Ellie said.

"No, no it's okay. Kids are supposed to keep secrets from their parents, it's only natural." Tony said humorously and Ellie smiled. "But if you want to talk about whatever's going on, I can listen, and I promise that I won't interrupt or judge or get mad or anything alright."

Ellie nodded and began, "It all started with this dream...

*Flashback*

A 13-year-old Ellie was having a strange dream, she was in the woods behind her house, and someone was calling her name, it was a man. She walked towards the voice and saw a strange man in strange clothing. He was very tall, with dark skin and broad shoulders and he was holding a glowing orange stone. "Take it, child."

When she woke, she told her mother she was going to play in the woods.

"Alright, well, be careful. And Happy Birthday!" Ellie's mother, Violet said with a smile.

In the woods, under the same tree, she had seen in her dreams was the glowing orange stone, just sitting on the ground. She picked it up and she felt the wind blow all around her making strange noises that sounded like shouting. Ellie became scared and she ran back home, the stone in her pocket.

When she arrived back home she ate breakfast and her mother gave her a small gift and told her she could open the rest when her father got home.

For the rest of the day, Ellie had mostly forgotten about the stone and had left it in her room. Her activities were mostly normal that day, she was on their trampoline for a while, practicing her gymnastics, then she went inside and started reading her new book, which had been her present from earlier that day.

When her father, Jason, got home, they had Ellie's favourite food, lasagna, and then they opened presents and had cake and then watched her favourite movie at the time, the first Jurassic Park.

It had been a great day, but that year her birthday fell on a Sunday, so she was sent to bed around 9 pm. While in her room, she noticed the stone again and started to examine it a little closer. It didn't look like anything she had ever seen before.

Her thoughts were scattered when she heard shouting from downstairs, she put the stone on her dresser and silently crept down the stairs to see what was going on, and there she saw a slight so unbelievable that until now-Ellie discovered the truth, she had thought that this was just a nightmare that she had had while unconscious.

There was an alien in the house, a huge one. It had big swords and it was pointing them at her mom.

"Where's the soul stone?!" It snarled.

"We-we don't know... please, please-" Violet begged.

Ellie was about to scream, do something, anything, but then a cold hand grabbed the back of her shirt, and voice that she will never forget said, "I've found a lone cub."

Ellie was dragged down the stairs and thrown next to her parents, her captor was a young woman who seemed to have several body parts missing and replaced with robotic mechanisms, and her skin was a bright blue. She knelt beside Ellie and asked her, "Do you know where the stone is?"

Ellie furrowed her eyebrows and said, "Is it orange and glows?"

The woman looked at her in surprise, "Where is it?"

"It's-it's on my dresser in my room, I-I found it in the woods this morning," Ellie said, hoping that if she co-operated that this would all go away.

The woman said something to the other alien in a language that Ellie didn't recognize, and it went stomping up the stairs, shaking the entire house in the process. When he returned he handed the stone to the blue woman. But the stone was now not orange or glowing, just grey.

"What is this?!" The woman yelled and threw it at Ellie, who grabbed it.

"I swear it was-" She was cut off as she was blinded by the suddenly overwhelmingly bright orange light emanating from the stone.

The woman, after getting over the initial shock, looked at Ellie in disbelief. "Take her." She said to the other alien. Her parents started to yell and shout.

For Ellie, it seemed like time was slowing, until everything nearly stopped altogether. She saw the light from the stone seep into her hand and her veins shimmered with light as the power was carried around until it finally got to her head. Her eyes shone bright orange and she felt power, immense power, building and she could not contain it.

A huge blast emitted from the house, absolutely destroying it and severely damaging the houses around it.

Ellie opened her eyes and saw she was laying in her backyard. Ash was falling like snow and the smoke was so thick that she could barely breathe. She stood and saw the blue woman standing a distance from the house, they made eye contact.

Ellie immediately started to run... and she never went back.

* * *

"I..." Tony started after hearing the story, but he wasn't sure what to say. Loki had told him the cliffnotes version, but hearing it from his daughter was a whole different thing. "Who were those people- those aliens?" Tony asked.

"Agents of Thanos," Ellie said.

"Thanos. That's the second time I've heard that name this week. Who is it?"

"He's... a monster. He wants these relics from the beginning of the universe. They're called infinity stones, they contain near-infinite power. Thanos wants them all. All six of them. I don't know why, but he'll stop at nothing. The whole invasion, it was orchestrated by him," Ellie explained.

"But why earth?" Tony asked, "Why not some other planet?"

Ellie looked up at Tony, "Because Earth is home to at least two infinity stones. The Tesseract, and-"

"And the orange stone you found in the forest," Tony finished. He was finally understanding now... why Loki did what he did. Loki left the Tesseract to Ellie, Tony figured that his idea was to give Ellie more power that she could use to protect herself. Loki might not have thought of one thing though, having another infinity stone, it just made her a bigger target. "So... you have two of the six most powerful objects in the universe?"

Ellie nodded, "A little strange, isn't it? That Thanos wants to kill me over something I only realized I had a few days ago?"

"No one is going to kill you," Tony quickly and firmly responded.

Ellie quickly hugged Tony, firstly to comfort both of them, but also so that he wouldn't see her face that quite transparently displayed the doubt she felt.

* * *

In the days that followed Ellie's awakening, she began to discover that she could not control her newfound powers very well, and she was afraid that she would accidentally hurt someone. She had mentioned going to Asgard before, but Tony had shut down that idea right away, and Ellie couldn't blame him, they had all gone through something terrible, and he wanted them to heal together, as a family. But Ellie wasn't willing to risk losing him like she lost her parents, and so in the dead of night, she left a note.

When Tony woke up that morning there was a note on the kitchen counter, he opened it and immediately there was a pit in his stomach. The note read:

Dear Tony,

I know you don't want me to go, but I have to.  
I told you how my parents died, I could never live with myself if anything like that ever happened to you because of me.  
I will be gone for a month at most I promise.

Love Ellie.

Tony put his head in his hands and rubbed his forehead. Of course, Cap just had to intrude on this moment, he thought as he heard the distinctive humming of Steve.

"Tony what's-"

Tony threw the letter at Steve and let him read for himself.

"But I don't understand, how could she have gotten to Asgard?" Steve asked and Tony rolled his eyes.

"Steve, from what she told me a few days ago the Tesseract is known to most as the Space Stone, I'm pretty sure she can teleport where ever she wants." Tony rubbed his forehead, "At least Thor's there." Although, Thor seemed like a gentle fool at best, and an angry fool at worst, so the jury was still out on whether or not it was a comforting thought.

* * *

Using the combined powers of the Soul Stone and the Space Stone, Ellie looked into space and saw Thor, he had just finished training with Lady Sif and the Warriors Three and was heading to what looked like the great hall. Ellie imagined herself there and suddenly she was, and Thor, who was very much not expecting this, screamed slightly... until he realized who it was.

"Lady Stark!" Thor exclaimed with surprise.

"Wow, that actually worked." Ellie said, "Hi, sorry to visit unexpectedly, but I need some help."

"Of course, we all owe you a great debt. Come, let me take you to my father." Thor said.

On the way there Ellie was aware of the many eyes on her, it made her uncomfortable, but she could only imagine what they must be thinking, a strange woman magically appears on their planet... Ellie knew the feeling.

Upon entering the throne room Ellie immediately noticed the two prominent figures at the end of the room, on the Throne, Odin, and standing at his side, Frigga.

"Thor, my son. Who is this?" Odin asked Thor as he approached.

"Father, mother, this is Lady Bellicose Stark. She was the one who closed the portal in New York and ultimately won us the battle. She was also Loki's protege."

Odin's eyes widened at the first fact and Frigga's at the second, she was devastated by the loss of her mostly misunderstood son.

" _She is Loki's student? How do we know that she is not here to free him?"_ Odin asked, towards Frigga and Thor, not expecting Ellie to respond, in their own language nonetheless.

" _Because while Loki is a good friend of mine. He has made choices that have lead him down a path that I can no longer follow."_ Ellie spoke and both Frigga and Odin looked at her with shock, Thor smiled and laughed as if it was the funniest joke he'd ever heard. When he stopped Ellie continued, in English this time. "I've come here for help. I have power I can't control, and I'm afraid I'm going to hurt someone. When this happened to me in the past, Loki taught me, but since he's... indisposed, I was hoping that whoever taught him would be willing to help me."

Frigga smiled kindly, and seemed to be about to say something, but then Odin spoke, "How are you, a mortal from Earth, able to hold such power?"

"I don't know," Ellie spoke honestly.

Frigga whispered something in Odin's ear and he sighed deeply and then nodded, "We will help you."

" _You have my thanks,"_ Ellie said.

Frigga walked towards Ellie, "Come with me." She said with a kind voice. They walked the halls until they reached a beautiful garden, there were all kinds of beautiful flowers and butterflies, but there was a specific one that caught Ellie's eye. It was orange in the centre and faded out to a deep blue, like Ellie's eyes before she was in control of the space stone, now there was a light blue surrounding her iris with specs of orange between the two shades of blue.

"He made these a little less than a year ago, he seemed so happy then," Frigga said, Ellie smelled the flowers and smiled widely. "What about these makes you smile so?"

"They remind me of him," Ellie said.

"I believe their purpose was to remind him of you, their smell, I've never smelt anything exactly like it on Asgard, until you arrived. In your hair is the slightest hint of the fragrance." Frigga smiled, "You two were very close weren't you?" Ellie nodded, not knowing exactly what to say to that.

Their little chat was interrupted by Thor, who said, "Mother, do you mind if I steal Ellie, I would like to introduce her to Lady Sif and the Warriors Three."

"Alright, but..." Frigga paused, "I want her back before the feast tonight so I can have some clothes made for her."

"Of course mother," Thor said with a smile.

He led her to the training area. Before they entered, Thor began to describe them to her, but Ellie interrupted him, "I know who they are Thor, Loki's told me about them before."

"Ah, yes of course. I forget that you may well know more about Asgard than I do." Thor said, laughing jovially.

"I heard there's a feast tonight, what's the occasion?" Ellie asked.

"We have successfully brought back peace to the nine realms, in fact, it was only today that I returned from Vanaheim."

Ellie smiled as Thor recounted their tale of victory, until a quite intimidatingly beautiful woman approached, appearing ready for battle. "Thor!" She greeted merrily, "Who is your companion?" She asked.

"Lady Sif, this is Bellicose Stark." Thor introduced, "Ellie, this is a good friend and one of the fiercest warriors of Asgard."

"Nice to meet you," Ellie said.

"No, the honour is all mine, Thor has told us much of you," Sif said.

"Sif, can you introduce Ellie to the rest of the Warriors Three, I must speak with my father," Thor asked.

"Of course," Sif said, and she and Ellie walked away, leaving Thor to find Odin.

"For the first time since the Bifrost was destroyed, the Nine Realms are at peace. They're well reminded of our strength and you have earned their respect and my gratitude." Odin spoke proudly.

"Thank you, father."

"Nothing is out of place except your confused and distracted heart," Odin said, and Thor looked at him with slight confusion.

"This isn't about Jane Foster," Thor replied with a hint of defensiveness.

"Human lives are fleeting, they are nothing. You'd be better served by what lies in front of you," Odin paused and they both looked at Sif and Fandral fighting, Sif having the upper hand, "I'm telling you this not as the all-father but as your father. You are ready, the time has come for you to take the throne. Embrace and celebrate what you've won, join your warriors. Eat and drink, revel in their celebration, at least pretend to enjoy yourself."

* * *

Frigga had been watching Ellie closely all day, and she must say, this girl did remind her of Loki. She did not participate in the sparring but instead watched and learned. She was punctual and understood the customs of Asgard far better than either Volstagg or Fandral.

When Ellie came back to the garden, Frigga was examining the same flowers from before, they had changed slightly, now they were a bright blue in the centre, it seemed like Loki had enchanted the flowers to look like her eyes.

Frigga smiled as she caught the smile on Ellie's face, "Come, we'll get you some clothes for your stay here."

They went to some sort of seamstress and Frigga picked out nearly everything, which was fine by Ellie, it was rare that she ever wore formal clothing, let alone fancy dresses.

Then Frigga said to the seamstress, "Have this all sent to Loki's quarters please."

Ellie furrowed her eyebrows, "Why-"

"My husband wants you close, to keep an eye on you, but I thought that you might like it better than staying in the guest wing all alone," Frigga explained.

"I um, yes, thank you," Ellie said.

Frigga led her up many stairs and through the twisting halls until finally, they seemed to reach a secluded part of the palace. If 'palace' was even a good enough description of the luxury of the building.

They approached a door and Frigga said, "This was his room, your clothes will be brought up for you. Until then, do what you please."

"Thank you," Ellie said, and as Frigga walked away Ellie opened the door, expecting it to be dark and full of green, but it wasn't. The walls were all silver, and there was light pouring in from the large balcony that overlooked much of Asgard, it was beautiful. There were books lying everywhere, and on a desk tucked in the corner of the expansive room, there was something that looked like a notebook. She cautiously opened it, but it was not a diary like she had thought, it was a sketchbook. Inside were absolutely beautiful drawings, several of which depicted Thor or his mother, as she got more towards the middle of the book there were more flowers and landscapes, and then-

Ellie paused at one specific picture, it was of her, lying in the grass, her eyes were closed and she was smiling faintly. Ellie blushed slightly and turned the page, it was the flower from the garden, on the next page was her again. She was taken aback by the sheer quality of these pictures, they must have taken days to draw. Ellie was also surprised because she had never taken him for an artist, but every drawing in this book was immaculate.

She was smiling as she put the book down, and then, blushing at the thought that someone else might have seen those. And that the someone might've been Frigga, who'd been saying suggestive things all day. Ellie sighed, Frigga had told her that the feast would be in a few hours time, so Ellie decided to have a quick shower, however, when she walked into the bathroom, there was no shower, only a bathtub that looked more like a pool and took up half the room.

Ellie carefully removed the combat suit she had on and hung it up, she carefully stepped into it and she immediately relaxed, the temperature was perfect, which she assumed was due to magic. She washed her hair and body then, stupidly, realized that she had no clothes to change into. She looked into another door off the bathroom and discovered a closet, inside there were a few white shirts. Ellie grabbed one and put it on. It was obviously very long on her, Loki was 6'2 and she was 5'4.

Luckily, soon her dresses were dropped off, she realized a common theme within them was orange and blue, which Ellie appreciated. She put on her favourite, and with that done, Ellie estimated that the feast would be starting soon, and so she began to attempt to make her way down to the main hall.


	9. Chapter 9

Trying to find her own way became a foolish endeavour, she had no knowledge of the layout of the palace, and she may have never found her way if Thor had not been late and come across her in the halls.

"Lady Stark!" He called and approached her, "You look... very nice." The truth was that she looked more than _nice_. She was absolutely stunning, though, Loki had never really based his liking of her off of her appearance, Thor was more one to notice these things.

She was wearing an orange one-shouldered dress with blue accents that certainly accentuated all her best features nicely. "Thanks, I am lost. Terribly lost."

"Ah, I see, well then, follow me." Thor led her to the main ballroom where there was a huge table set up with what Ellie assumed must be several hundred people sitting at it.

At one end, Frigga and Odin sat, with space on either side of them. Ellie remembered Loki telling her that Thor, the next king, would sit next to his father, and he would sit next to his mother. Ellie noticed that the spot beside Frigga was unoccupied, and so she sat across from Thor and next to Frigga. She smiled and laughed when appropriate, but otherwise stayed silent.

This didn't go unnoticed by Frigga, who was keeping a watchful eye on Ellie. Frigga wasn't sure what to make of this young woman, and she was young, although, if Loki's age was translated into human years they would be around the same age. But that wasn't really what Frigga wondered about, Loki loved the girl, that much was certain. The flowers in the garden, his notebook full of pictures of her, his absolute refusal to court any women on Asgard, they were all enough for Frigga to know. The girl's feelings were much harder to read, but Frigga had a hunch based off of her constantly blushing whenever Loki was brought up.

After a while of deliberating, Frigga decided that she would just pay a visit to Loki and ask him. She knew that Odin had forbidden them from seeing each other, but she had ways to get around that, and besides, he was her son, and she loved him.

Ellie left a bit early, tired from her journey and all the socialization, and Thor left early as well, little did either of them know they were both mourning their loved ones that were just out of their reach.

They both ended up going to the same garden that Frigga had taken Ellie to earlier. They got to talking about Jane, and it was clear that Thor was quite taken with her.

"You know... I can take you to Earth, if you want to see her," Ellie said.

Thor smiled, "I appreciate the offer, but these days, I think my presence would be sorely felt."

Ellie looked at him curiously, "So... you don't seem too taken with the idea of being king."

"I used to be... Loki, through his madness, did actually get his point across, I wouldn't have been a good king. I would have lead our people into countless wars, and for what?" Thor paused, "I think I know now that I would not make the best king. Loki, if not for... what had happened, would've been a far better choice."

Ellie shook her head a little, "I think you're underestimating yourself, Thor. Loki might be smart and manipulative, but no one trusted or respected him. Not like they do with you. That's kind of an essential part of ruling don't you think?"

Thor looked at Ellie and grinned slightly, "Perhaps you're right."

* * *

That night, after Odin had gone to sleep, Frigga created her apparition in Loki's cell.

Loki turned to face her and raised his eyebrows, "I do believe Odin specifically forbade you from seeing me again." Loki said tonelessly.

"Well, he forbade you from seeing _me_. There's a difference." Frigga said, "And you don't seem too surprised." Loki just gave her a sideways glance, and she said, "Have you not been sleeping, you seem tired."

"I'm fine," Loki replied with a strained voice.

"Loki, Thor told us of a young woman, someone you mentored..." Frigga trailed off.

Loki clenched his jaw, "What of it?" He asked sharply.

"She's the one you drew in your notebook isn't she, and those flowers?" Frigga asked, and Loki responded by turning away, "Do you love her?"

"She's a mortal, even if I did... her life will be over in the blink of an eye, and I'll still just be sitting here for another half a million years. There's no point in inflicting that pain on myself." Loki replied and gave Frigga all the answers she wanted.

"Oh, Loki..." Frigga said. She could acutely feel the pain of her son. She reached out to touch his cheek, but as soon as they came into contact, she dissipated from Loki's cell and was back in her private room. She sighed sadly, knowing there was nothing she could do to help.

* * *

That morning Ellie woke up and put on her combat suit (the one Loki gave her), Thor had invited her to spar with him and his friends that morning. Ellie was uncertain, since she had yet to learn much from Frigga, but she had noticed that since she came here she hasn't had any problems controlling her powers, and she was starting to think it was a matter of confidence.

As she stepped onto the training fields she was greeted by Thor and Sif, "Ellie, I'm glad you could join us."

"Happy to be here," Ellie said.

"Well, shall we jump right into it?" Fandral said confidently.

"If you are so eager perhaps you and Lady Stark should go at it first," Thor said smirking.

Ellie smiled at Thor knowingly, "Alright." She said and stepped into the lowered pit.

Fandral drew his sword, and Ellie hers, "So, I hear you were taught by Loki." He commented as if it was a disadvantage.

Her face fell into a bit of a smirk, Loki had told her that he didn't really get on with Thor's friends, but now she understood, they were just idiots.

Ellie imagined herself standing behind him, and then all of the sudden she was there, she grabbed his arm and twisted him around while kneeing him in the stomach.

He fell to his knees and Ellie pointed her sword at him, "You know, Loki was taught by the same people who taught Thor." She twirled her sword around, "But I'm sure that whoever taught you must be a true master." She paused, "Again." If she was being honest with herself, she wasn't really sure where this confidence came from, but she got the impression that these were the type of people who judged books by their covers.

He got up, shared a strange glance with Volstagg, sighed and raised his sword again. The second time ended up exactly the same, albeit it took a few seconds longer.

"Well, it's all too easy for you, you're using magic," Fandral commented, and Ellie raised an eyebrow.

"Alright then, no magic." She said, and this made Fandral grin with confidence.

She let him come at her, when he was close enough, she hit the inside of his elbow with the hilt of her dagger, making him drop his sword, leaving him without a weapon, and Ellie, not wanting him to claim it was unfair, sheathed her dagger. She assumed an open-handed stance that made Fandral smirk, he thought it looked ridiculous since he had never seen anything really like it before.

He made a 'come at me' gesture with his hands, and she did, she tried to trip him, but he blocked her, he tried to punch her but she dodged. The fight went on in that fashion for some time, and a small crowd had started to gather, people were making bets, with Thor and Lady Sif the only ones betting on Ellie.

Ellie was beginning to tire, and it would seem so was Fandral as he then left himself slightly undefended on one side. Ellie pounced, literally, she leaped on him, putting one of her legs over his shoulder, and then twisting, making him fall, and she landed on top of him, with one knee pinning down his right arm, and the other digging into his gut.

He groaned, "Alright, alright, you've got me."

Ellie laughed and stood, offering him a hand up, which he took. Ellie turned and heard Thor's boisterous laughter and he and Sif were both grinning widely.

"It's nice to see someone else put him in his place for once," Sif said jokingly to Ellie.

"Yes, you should join us for the celebrations tonight," Thor suggested.

"Oh, um I don't know..." Ellie said, unsure.

"Well, if you'd like to you're welcome," Thor said.

* * *

That night, Ellie hadn't gone to the celebration with Thor, but instead roamed around the castle, eventually walking away from the palace and towards the rainbow bridge, she saw a figure in the Bifrost, and she walked towards them, she was not expecting to see a familiar face. It was the man who had given her the soul stone in the forest nearly five years ago.

"Hello, child." He said as he turned to face her.

"You.. but how?" Ellie asked.

"I connected with your mind the same way Loki did, I simply discovered you first," Heimdall explained.

"What do you mean discovered?" Ellie asked.

"There was something special about you, I could never place it, but there must be. No normal human would be able to hold a fraction of the power you now contain." Heimdall.

"I-" Ellie was about to say something, but then out of the corner of her eye she spotted something strange in the sky, "What's that?" She asked, looking out into the galaxy.

Heimdall looked out into the stars and then back at her with a surprised glimpse in his eyes, "We call it the convergence." He started.

That was how Thor found the two of them, Heimdall pointing at the stars and Ellie asking him a million questions.

That was until Heimdall noticed Thor's presence, "You're late." He said to Thor.

"Yes, well, merriment can sometimes be a heavier burden than battle," Thor said.

"Then you're doing one of them incorrectly," Heimdall replied. At this Ellie smirked a little.

"Perhaps," Thor admitted, amused. "How fare the stars?" He asked.

"Still shining. From here I can see nine realms and ten trillion souls." Heimdall said, "You recall what I told you of the Convergence?" He asked Thor, having just explained it to Ellie.

"Yes, the alignment of the worlds. It approaches, doesn't it?" Thor asked.

"The universe hasn't seen this marvel since before my watch began. Few can sense, even fewer can see it. A world that's infected can be dangerous, but it is truly beautiful." Heimdall said.

"I see nothing," Thor said.

"Or perhaps that is not the beauty you seek," Heimdall said, and Ellie smiled.

Thor chuckled, "How is she?" He asked.

"She's quite clever, your mortal. She doesn't know it yet, but she studies the Convergence as well. Even..." Heimdall suddenly trailed off, a confused look coming onto his face.

Ellie and Thor shared a look, "What?" Thor asked.

"I can't see her," Heimdall said.

"What does that mean?" Ellie asked, looking at Thor's horrified face.

"It means she's not on Earth," Heimdall said.

Ellie furrowed her eyebrows, and as Thor started asking Heimdall questions, Ellie tried to find Jane. Something Ellie has been able to do ever since she realized she was in possession of the soul stone, was see where people were, or what they were doing. It took only a moment for Ellie to find her.

"I can see her," Ellie said, which caught the attention of Heimdall and Thor.

"Where is she?" Thor asked.

"I-I don't know, she's in some sort of cave, and there's a red liquid, spinning around her, it-it looks like she's unconscious," Ellie said.

"Can you tell if she's hurt?" Thor asked with concern.

"No, I'm sorry, it's blurry, but I think..." Ellie paused, "I think she's on Earth, I can feel another person nearby, another human."

"Heimdall, you must send me to Earth immediately," Thor said.

Ellie opened her eyes, "I can take you." She said and held out her hand.

Thor grabbed it, and Ellie locked onto the other human signature that was nearby. Suddenly they were standing in the rain, which Thor made stop around them, and Jane, who they could see in the middle distance.

"You go talk to her, I'm going to quickly pop in on Tony, I'll meet you back on Asgard," Ellie said before disappearing.

* * *

In New York...

Tony, Steve and Bruce were all sitting around a dining room table eating dinner and chatting idly when all of the sudden Ellie appeared a few feet away.

Steve choked on his drink and started coughing, "Oh Sorry! Are you alright?" Ellie asked.

Tony stood from the table while Bruce helped Steve with his breathing issue, "Ellie! You're back!" Tony exclaimed.

"Just for a bit, Thor and I were just popping down to see if Jane was okay," Ellie explained.

"So you're not staying?" Tony asked.

"No, but uh..." Ellie paused, "Between you and me, I'm getting a little tired of Asgard, I think once we find out what's wrong with Jane I'm going to come back. Probably only a day or two more," Ellie told Tony.

"Alright kid, just be safe," Tony said apprehensively.

"I will, I promise." She said before disappearing.

* * *

In Asgard's Healing Room...

Ellie popped in just as Thor was bringing in Jane, "Ah, Lady Stark, there you are." Thor said to Ellie in greeting.

After getting Jane on the 'soul forge' Thor explained to Ellie what had happened, "Interesting, is it poss-" Ellie was then cut off by Odin's entrance into the chamber.

"My words are mere noises to you that you ignore them completely?" Odin said angrily as he walked in.

As Thor and Odin bickered Ellie and Jane started a conversation.

"You're Ellie Stark?" Jane asked.

"And you're Jane Foster, I worked with a friend of yours, Erik Selvig."

Jane smiled, "Erik! He's like a father to me."

"I could tell, he told me all about you... so has Thor."

Jane blushed, "Really?"

Ellie nodded, "Yeah, that's how we found you actually, he was checking up on you and couldn't find you."

Ellie then heard Odin say something along the lines of "Escort her back to Earth." And Ellie saw the guards approaching Jane.

Both Thor and Ellie started saying, "That's not a good idea..."

Of course, none of them listened, and once the guards laid a finger on Jane, there was an immediate reaction, everyone in the room ducked.

Jane then laid back down looking very tired all of the sudden. "Jane, are you alright?" Thor asked gently.

Odin then carefully approached and ran his hand over Jane's forearm to reveal a red shimmering liquid running through her veins. "That's impossible," Odin said.

"Is that..." Ellie trailed off, but it was enough for Odin to know what she was thinking, that it was an infinity stone.

"I believe so." Odin said looking at Ellie, Thor looked at both of them with confusion, "Come with me, both of you." Odin said to Jane and Thor, who followed him.

Ellie, who had already learned the history of the ather/reality stone, decided to go walk around the castle but eventually found herself back at the Bifrost.

"What brings you back child?" Heimdall asked.

"You giving me that stone... my parents died because of that, I lost everything," Ellie said.

"That was never my intention," Heimdall said.

"Then what was?" Ellie said.

"The stone was unguarded, an agent of Thanos had discovered its location. I knew that if I didn't hide it properly that it would fall into his hands." Heimdall paused, "I had no idea that they would find it so soon after. I am sorry for what happened." Heimdall told her.

Ellie nodded, "I understand." She said.

Heimdall bowed his head slightly as a sign of respect, and Ellie did the same before leaving.

* * *

Ellie was with Frigga, Thor and Jane when the attack began.

"That's the prison alarm," Frigga said.

"Loki," Thor said with concern, though, Ellie couldn't tell if he was concerned that Loki might've escaped or been injured in some sort of riot.

"You two should go, I'll look after her," Frigga said.

Ellie nodded and asked, "Where to?"

Thor simply replied, "Hold on." Ellie grabbed his shoulders tightly, and soon they were soaring through the air, and within a few terrifying seconds, they were outside the prison doors.

Thor opened the doors, which caught everyone's attention, "Return to your cells and further harm will come to you. You have my word." Then one of the prisoners ran up to him and engaged him in a fight, "Very well then, you do not have my word."

Ellie dove into the fight, which was beginning to wind down when a different alarm started to ring, "Thor! What does that mean?!" Ellie shouted over the fight.

"It means that the shields of the palace have been taken down." Thor told her, Ellie's eyes widened, "Can you take us to Jane and my mother?"

Ellie nodded, and as soon as she grabbed his hand they re-appeared in Frigga's chambers, just in time to see her being stabbed through by Malekith.

"No!" Roared Thor, who threw a lightning bolt at Malekith, it hit him right across the face.

Ellie ran to Frigga's side and looked at the wound, they were too late. Ellie calculated that it had punctured too many vital organs and it had severed a major artery, she would bleed out before anything could be done. Ellie took a step back as Thor and Odin came to Frigga's side.

Jane came out from behind one of the pillars, and Ellie glanced her way before turning back to Odin who was just rocking on the floor with Frigga's body in his arms, and Thor who was staring blankly at nothing.

* * *

The funeral was that night, Jane and Thor stood next to Odin, but Ellie sat on the rainbow bridge with Heimdall in silence.

"Can you see them?" Heimdall asked her, breaking the silence.

"I can but... it's so blurry. I can't tell where they are, only that they're not moving." Ellie told him.

Heimdall hummed and then looked at her, "You should not feel guilty."

Ellie looked at him simply, "I know... but I do."

"And something tells me you're feeling the sorrow of another," Heimdall said, Ellie understood he was implying that she was feeling Loki's pain as well... he wasn't wrong.

Ellie kicked her legs and looked down into space, "I know it's wrong but..."

"You miss him." Heimdall finished her sentence, they both then fell back int silence as they watched the fiery boats fall one by one into the abyss.

* * *

The Next Day...

Thor had mysteriously asked her to follow him the next afternoon, and she did, she followed him to a small room off the palace, and inside there was Sif, Fandral, Volstagg and Hogan. Ellie and Thor sat and then Thor began his telling of his plan.

"What I'm about to ask of you is treason of the highest order. Success will bring us exile and failure shall mean our death. Malekith knew the Aether was here, he can sense its power. If we do nothing he will come for it again, but this time lay waste to all of Asgard." Thor paused, "We must move Jane off world." He said.

"But the Bifrost has been shut down," Sif said.

"There are other ways off Asgard, I'm one, but there's something about the place where they are... I don't think I could take you there," Ellie said.

"What do you mean other ways?" Volstagg asked.

"There are passageways between worlds, ways only known to a few... one actually," Thor said, and everyone's eyes opened in shock at what he was suggesting.

"No," Hogan said.

"What other choice do we have?" Thor asked.

The group exchanged wary glances, even Ellie who was beginning to become concerned with how elaborate this plan was becoming, any misstep at _any_ stage and the whole thing was toast.

"He will betray you," Volstagg said.

"He won't betray her," Thor said and looked at Ellie who was biting her lip. As much as she wanted to see Loki again, this was shaping up to be more adventure than she was expecting. But then again, she would've been disappointed if the opposite had been true.

"Well, what then? Your lovely mortal is being guarded by a legion of warriors who will see you coming from miles away." Fandral said.

"That's why I won't be coming for her," Thor said, looking at Sif.

"And what of the All-Father?" Sif asked.

"Heimdall will keep him occupied long enough for us to enact our plan," Thor said.

"Assuming you can get Loki's help, and you can free this mortal, what good would it do? We'd all be dead the minute we step one foot outside the palace." Hogan added.

"That's why we won't be leaving by foot. Lady Stark, do you think you can operate the crashed ship?" Thor asked.

"I think so." She said, besides how different could it be from the Quinn jet.

"Okay, then that's the plan," Thor said and clapped.

"Wait," Ellie said, "How are you planning on getting Loki out of the prisons? You can't just turn off the barrier, someone will notice before we have time to leave."

"That's why I'm bringing you." Thor said, "Do you think you can teleport within the shields?"

Ellie nodded slowly in newfound understanding, "Probably."

"Good, now in one hour Ellie and I are going to bust Loki out, be ready," Thor said.


	10. Chapter 10

Thor and Ellie, under black cloaks, headed towards the prisons. As they approached Thor said, "Wait here, let me talk to him first, then when I give you a signal come and get him."

"Alright, be quick," Ellie said.

Thor walked forwards and slightly turned a corner, Ellie could still see and hear him, but Loki couldn't see her.

"After all this time now you come to visit me. Why? Have you come to gloat? To mock?" Loki asked Thor.

"Loki, enough. No more illusions." Thor said.

Ellie heard a pause before Loki spoke again, "Now you see me, brother." He paused, "Did she suffer?"

"I di not come here to share in our grief. Instead, I offer you the chance of a far richer sacrament." Thor said then paused.

"Go on."

"I know you seek vengeance as much as I do. You help me escape Asgard and I will grant it to you, vengeance. And afterwards, this cell." Thor said and Loki chuckled.

"You must be truly desperate to come to me for help. What makes you think you can trust me?" Loki asked.

"I don't. Mother did. You should know that when we fought each other in the past, I did so with the glimmer of hope that my brother was still in there somewhere. That hope no longer exists to protect you. You betray me and I will kill you," Thor said cooly. At this Ellie raised an eyebrow, it was awfully cold-hearted for Thor. "Now, will you help us?" Thor asked, after a brief silence.

"Us?" Loki asked.

"You didn't think I'd just stay on Earth did you?" Ellie asked, coming around the corner, Loki smiled, genuinely smiled and it took Thor aback as he couldn't remember the last time he saw his brother smile at anyone besides their mother like that. Ellie looked at her friend with empathy as she saw how clearly distraught he was over the death of his mother.

"It's good to see you, Bella." Loki said, "But how exactly are the two of you going to get me out of this cell?" He asked.

Loki suddenly heard a popping noise and then from right in front of him Ellie said, "Like this." She held her hand out for him, and when he grabbed it they suddenly appeared beside Thor. Ellie was about to step away, but Loki quickly wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her. She let out a surprised squeak. Thor's eyes widened like saucers.

Loki pulled away slightly and whispered in her ear, "I love you."

Ellie kissed his cheek, "I love you too," She whispered back.

"Alright... Well... let's go." Thor said awkwardly, "We'll meet you at the ship." Thor said to Ellie, who nodded and disappeared. Loki watched her disappear with longing before turning to follow Thor. "I didn't know it was that serious..." Thor commented.

Loki's previously content face turned into a scowl, "Shut up Odinson."

* * *

Ellie re-appeared beside Sif, who had Jane with her and was heading to the ship, they turned a corner and they were faced with a large number of guards. Ellie quickly grabbed both Jane and Sif and teleported them straight to the ship, where Loki and Thor had just arrived.

"Lady Stark, take Jane to the ship and see if you can start it," Thor said.

Ellie grabbed Jane again and teleported onto the ship, Ellie ran up to the control panel and started pressing buttons that looked like the power button. Nothing was working, but then Ellie thought of another idea. She put her hands flat on the panel and tried to channel energy from her to the ship, she figured that since Fury was going to use the Tesseract to power weapons, why couldn't she use it to power up a ship?

After a few moments of concentration, the lights turned on, and soon after Loki and Thor came in, bickering about something. Ellie didn't participate, she was too busy concentrating on the ship, it was the strangest feeling, almost like the ship was a part of her. Once she was certain it was going to stay running she removed herself from the mainframe.

"Alright," Ellie said, "I think I've got it."

She began to pilot the ship out of the great hall but managed to hit a lot of the pillars in their way.

"I think you missed a column," Loki said.

Ellie smiled, catching Loki's eye as she said, "Well would you like to try?"

"As a matter of fact, I would," Loki replied.

Ellie rolled her eyes and scoffed, "You only _think_ you know everything."

Loki ignored the laughter from his brother and took in the smile of the woman he never thought he'd see again. Then Jane suddenly collapsed, "Oh no, is she dead." He remarked dryly, Ellie shot him a glare.

Thor quickly went to Jane's side, "Is she alright?" Ellie asked.

"I'm okay," Jane said weakly. Thor continued to speak to her in a soft voice.

Ellie looked at Jane with uncertainty but then turned back to the front of the ship, focusing on the task at hand.

She looked down and realized they were just above their target, Ellie pressed the button she thought opened the side door. She was right, and the door opened. Thor took Loki by surprise and shoved him out of it.

Ellie then went to Jane, "Do you want to take her, or should I?" She asked.

"I'll do it, go and make sure Loki doesn't murder Fandral would you?" Thor asked in amusement.

Ellie peered down the door to see that Loki had made an ungraceful landing, she gave Thor a thumbs up before teleporting down there herself.

"Ah Lady Stark, good to see you again!" Fandral said to Ellie, slightly nervously.

"Don't worry Fandral, I won't make such an embarrassment of you next time," Ellie replied with a smirk. Loki glanced between them with amusement, he was certain he was going to enjoy whatever story was behind that nervous expression of his.

"Oh, well I-" Fandral was about to start when Thor came down with Jane, "Well, that's my cue... For Asgard." He said, jumping off the side of the ship.

"You lied to me..." Loki said to Thor pausing, "I'm impressed."

"I'm glad you're pleased. Now, do as you promised. Take us to your secret pathway." Thor said.

Loki then took control of the ship and turned to towards the mountains, and it quickly began to look like Loki was about to drive them into the side of the mountain.

" _Can we fit?_ " Ellie asked in Asgardian, in order not to scare Jane.

" _Maybe._ " Was Loki's response, Thor and Ellie shared concerned glances.

" _Loki, are you mad_?" Thor asked.

" _Possibly,_ " Loki replied.

Ellie gripped the side of the ship and shut her eyes tightly, wincing at every bump and squeal of metal against rock, but when she opened her eyes she saw a vast desert that went on as far as the eye could see.

"Tada," Loki said as they emerged, and Ellie grinned at him, he smiled back.

"Lady Stark, you should get some rest while you can," Thor suggested, seeing that Jane had already fallen asleep.

"No, I'm alright. Besides, I'd rather keep an eye on the dark elves," Ellie replied.

There was a long period of silence as Ellie looked out into the distance, Loki was focused on his task of flying the ship, and Thor was watching Jane like a hawk.

Jane then started to rouse from her sleep and Ellie walked over to see if she was alright.

"You should say goodbye," Loki said quietly to Thor, as he watched his brother stare and Jane with concern.

"Not this day," Thor said.

"This day, the next, a hundred years is nothing. It's a heartbeat. You'll never be ready." Loki said. Except he wasn't looking at Jane, or even Thor, he was looking at Ellie.

"And what of you, brother? Have you not gone and done the same?" Thor asked. He gestured to Ellie, who was trying to soothe Jane since she seemed to be in a fair amount of pain. Something Ellie was familiar with.

Loki looked at him and attempted an expression of nonchalance, but failed. "That's... not the same."

"Oh Loki, for someone who lies so much you sure are terrible at it," Thor said, "It was difficult for me to realized that I had grown to love Jane but..." He paused again as he looked at Jane's peaceful form, "I am all the better for it."

Loki was silent for a moment, "You know nothing of love Odinson."

Thor looked at Loki with slight confusion, what did he mean? Was he implying that he didn't love Jane? Or that Jane didn't love him? Either way, Thor was confused. He was about to ask Loki what he meant, but then Ellie stood and walked back over to them.

"She's okay, but obviously, she's in a lot of pain," Ellie said.

Thor's eyebrows furrowed, "Did the infinity stones hurt you?" He asked Ellie.

She nodded, "At first, but it went away." She looked back at Jane, "I would try and take it from her... but I don't know what I'm doing, and I wouldn't want to hurt her more."

Loki's eyes darkened at that, "We also don't know what could happen to you if you take more energy."

Thor and Ellie froze and looked at each other before Ellie spoke, "Well... I don't think you're going to like this plan very much then."

* * *

About an hour or two passed as Thor explained his plan to Loki and they ventured further into the wasteland that was the dark realm.

After Loki's extensive questioning, Ellie saw that Thor looked tired, and realized that he probably hadn't slept in _days_. "You should get some sleep, it'll be a while until they get here, they haven't even started to move yet." Ellie said to Thor, who gave a glance towards Loki, "I'll make sure he doesn't run off."

Loki smirked and Thor looked apprehensive, but as he yawned again he conceded, "Alright." He then walked over to Jane and laid down beside her, wrapping his arm around her, pulling her closer to him.

Ellie looked at Loki whose walls seemed to have come down now that Thor wasn't there to see, "I'm sorry about your mother."

"She wasn't," Loki said quietly.

"What?" Ellie asked.

"Those were my last words to her, saying that she wasn't my mother," Loki said with a monotone voice, but his face told a different story.

"Oh, Loki..." Ellie said, she put a hand on his forearm and squeezed, "I'm so sorry." Loki gave her a small smile, but she could tell he was still very upset, as he should be, she hugged him.

Loki put his hands on her waist and said quietly in her ear, "I thought I would never see you again."

"Neither did I," Ellie replied then paused, "You know... I didn't know you were such a good artist." She smiled as he blushed slightly.

Loki then raised an eyebrow, "How do you..."

"Odin made me stay in your room so that he could keep an eye on me, probably thought I was gonna try and jailbreak you or something, although, I guess I did do that so..." Ellie trailed off smiling.

Loki chuckled and then looked across the desert, "How long until they get here?" Loki asked Ellie.

"They've just started moving, but they're really far away, it'll take them all night." Ellie said, "You may as well land the ship. If anyone was going to follow us I'm sure they would've done it already."

Loki hummed in agreement and found a dune to land the ship on, little did they know that the slight bump had woken Thor up, but he pretended to be asleep and tried to eavesdrop.

"What was that I heard about you humiliating Fandral?" Loki asked with amusement as they sat beside each other on the side of the boat.

"Oh well, I beat him pretty bad several times a few days ago in front of many people." She said, "You know you are completely right about them, they're just absolute fools," Ellie proclaimed.

"Oh, you do not know how many years I have waited to hear that from someone other than myself," Loki said. "Where have you been all my life?" He asked in amusement. Ellie smiled at him but didn't respond Loki smiled back and said, "I've been thinking about this, and if I thought we would ever see each other again then I would've done something much grander, but nothing is guaranteed anymore."

"Loki what're you-"

"Let me finish, let me finish." He said before continuing, "I know it's your birthday today, and I hope that this might overpower some of the horrible things that have happened in the past." Ellie wasn't quite sure where he was going with this. "Bella, before, you asked me what I had meant to do. I was going to bring you to Asgard, I would've declared you as my apprentice, had you eat a golden apple. I would've courted you properly, and we would've had the next five hundred thousand years together." He paused, "But then I... I destroyed that future and nothing has happened the way I wanted it to, we don't have five hundred thousand years, we only have tonight." He paused again to look at her face, which was a mixture of surprise and happiness, "So I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry, and... I love you."

Ellie was biting her lip and smiling, "I love you too."

Loki fished around in a back pocket of his trousers, he pulled out a ring. It was a thin gold band with an emerald inlaid in it. "This was supposed to be done at a better time," He started. "I believe the expression they use on Midgard is, will you marry me?"

"Oh, Loki... of course, yes," Ellie said. She was so happy, yet she was still grieving what had happened just the day before, and in a few hours time, they were about to be attacked by an ancient elf who wanted nothing more than to destroy the universe. But in that moment, Ellie let that all go. She kissed him, and he slipped the ring onto her finger. It felt right.


	11. Chapter 11

Thor awoke a few hours later with Jane wrapped up in his arms, he carefully detached himself and stood, he saw Ellie and Loki sitting together on the edge of the dune, her head resting on his shoulder. He went and sat beside them, "How much longer now?" Thor asked Ellie.

"Not much longer, maybe 10 minutes," Ellie told him, "We were just about to wake you up."

"We?" Thor asked with over eagerness, trying to prod them into telling him the news.

"We know you were awake," Loki said in a deadpan tone.

"Oh, well, uh, yes." Thor said, embarrassed, "Congratulations, and uh, I've always wanted a sister." He added.

"Thanks," Ellie said and laughed a little.

The three of them stood and looked out across the desert, where they could see a faint speck become larger and larger.

Thor turned and woke up Jane and Ellie whispered to Loki, "Ready?"

"Always." He returned with a smirk, Ellie nodded, and was about to disappear when Loki grabbed her arm and said quietly, "I love you."

"I love you too," Ellie replied and gave his hand a light squeeze before disappearing to a ridgeline further away, where she was out of sight. Most of the plan involved taking them by surprise, which hopefully would be enough.

Ellie watched from her position as Thor and Loki wrestled down the hill, eventually ending in Loki 'cutting off' Thor's arm, then Loki seemed to have some sort of discussion with Malekith before throwing Jane to him. Ellie watched in slight fascination as he drew the Aether from Jane, then Thor hit it with his hammer and all the lightning he could summon.

There was an explosion, and it seemed like the Aether had crystallized, but then after a few painstaking moments, it turned back into liquid. That was Ellie's queue, just as Malekith was about to take in the Aether Ellie teleported to the other side, opposing Malekith, she reached out her hand and touched the Aether, she wasn't quite aware of what was happening at that moment because as soon as even a little bit of the power of the Aether was in her control her whole body felt like it was on fire, she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to push through it. She didn't want to start screaming an scare everyone as she had in New York.

Loki watched Ellie try to take the Aether and he was starting to realize that it was hurting her and he was beginning to wonder how much power she could really hold, she was only human after all. On the other side, Malekith wasn't expecting it to go to her rather than him and so he was a little taken aback, but after he realized that she could hold it's power he said something to his men and threw something towards Ellie.

Loki wasn't fast enough to stop the object from hitting her, but he was fast enough to catch her as she stumbled backwards, the Aether slipping out from her grasp in shock. Loki carefully lowered her down and saw that there was a throwing knife embedded in her chest, just under her left collarbone.

She was gasping in pain, probably in shock. She gripped his arm tightly as she struggled to breathe properly. Loki, knowing that the healing enchantment he placed on her wouldn't begin to start until the knife was removed, bent over and whispered, "I'm sorry, this is going to hurt." He grabbed the handle of the knife and pulled it out quickly, he then quickly placed his hand over the wound to try and stop some of the bleeding.

Loki then turned his eyes to Malekith, who had absorbed the Aether and was now walking back to his ship, the few dark elves left began to attack, Thor managed to take care of them, but then Malekith took note of this and sent more of them to attack. Loki glanced down at Ellie before getting up to help Thor fight the elves.

Ellie was still laying on the ground, jaw clenched in pain, when Jane crawled over.

"Ohmygod are you okay?" Jane asked, not having been completely conscious when it had happened.

Ellie slowly sat up then nodded and said, "I'm okay."

Jane then noticed something glinting in the sand and picked up the knife that had hit Ellie, "Was this inside you?!" Jane exclaimed.

"Yeah, I think so," Ellie said, carefully taking it from Jane, who looked at her strangely.

Then, one of the dark elves threw a vortex grenade towards Jane and Ellie, Ellie pushed Jane down and out of the way, keeping her safe, but Ellie was then being sucked into the vortex.

Suddenly Loki came darting out from nowhere and tackled her back to the ground, he looked her in the eye and said, "Would you stop trying to get yourself killed?"

"Thanks." She said, breathing heavily. Loki laid on top of her for a moment longer, before kissing her forehead and getting up. Loki noticed that the wound still hadn't completely healed, but before he do anything about it they were quickly surrounded by dark elves.

They both stood, back to back, "Shall we?" Loki asked Ellie, who nodded. The elves ran at them, and they were quickly dispatched by Ellie and Loki, who were a flurry of blades, "Duck." Loki said, and they both ducked and were narrowly missed by a sword.

Ellie turned and looked back at Thor who was struggling with his opponent, Loki glanced to see what she was looking at before finishing off the last elf.

"Shall we?" Ellie asked him, motioning towards Thor and holding out her arm for Loki to take.

Suddenly they re-appeared in between the last remaining dark elf and Thor, who appeared to be pretty badly beaten since he wasn't really moving, Loki nodded at Ellie, who then popped onto the other side of the beast and tried to run it through with her sword, but it didn't even make a dent in its armour, she popped back to Loki, "Not even a dent," She said, but she then noticed one of elves swords laying on the ground not too far away, "Distract it," She told Loki as she went to get the sword, not a few moments later she had taken the large sword, nearly too heavy for her to carry, and stabbed it through the thing.

She sent a triumphant glance Loki's way, before realizing that it hadn't incapacitated the beast at all. The dark elf instead grabbed Loki who was in front of it and stabbed him through with the blade.

"Loki!" Ellie shouted.

"See you in hell monster," Loki said.

The elf suddenly was consumed by one of the vortex grenades, releasing Loki from its grasp.

Thor, who had just gotten up, was the closest to Loki, and he ran to his side, "No, no! Fool, you didn't listen!" Thor said desperately.

"I know, I'm a fool. I'm a fool." Loki said, and a shiver wracked his body.

"Stay with me. Stay!" Thor said.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Loki said.

"It's alright. I'll tell father what you did here today." Thor said.

"I didn't do it for him," Loki said, tilting his head to see Ellie, who fell to her knee's at his side, opposite to Thor.

"Loki..." She said, tears falling that matched Thor's.

"We'll see each other again one day, I promise," Loki said.

"Loki please, please don't-"

"I love you, Bella," Loki said as his skin began to turn a grey-blue.

Ellie curled up around him, resting her forehead on his chest and Thor let out a shout of anguish, they were both sobbing, and Jane, who had slowly made her way over to them, was surprised to see what she did.

Thor had never really spoken to Jane about Loki before, and she had figured that after what happened in New York they had cut most of their ties. Jane knew all about Ellie Stark, she was all over the news, a brave heroic type. After New York, Jane had figured Ellie would hate him as everyone else did. Jane was wrong on all counts because now she saw a man who was destroyed that he couldn't save his younger brother, and a young woman who had lost her best and only friend.

After what felt like hours Thor and Ellie had no more tears, they looked at each other Thor said, "We have to go."

"We can't just leave him here," Ellie said quietly.

"We have to," Thor said.

Ellie took a deep breath and wiped at her cheeks, she nodded and spoke with a hardness in her voice that hadn't been there before, "I'll meet you in London."

* * *

It was the middle of the night in New York, Tony wasn't asleep, as usual. He had told Jarvis that if Ellie showed up to alert him immediately. That night it happened.

"Mr. Stark, Ellie is on the roof of the tower," Jarvis said through the intercom.

Tony looked up in surprise and quickly made his way to the roof.

It was pouring outside, but Tony didn't overly care. He saw her standing about a foot away from the rails. She was just standing there, but she must have heard him because she turned to face him.

Jarvis turned the on lights on the roof, and then Tony could see her. She was covered in blood, so much that he could see a pool of it at her feet that the rain had washed away.

"Ellie..." Tony said, his eye was drawn to the deep cut below her collarbone, "What happened?" He asked.

She just looked at him, and Tony couldn't be certain that she wasn't crying, but the rain made it hard to tell for certain, but when she wiped her cheeks, he had his answer. Tony went up to her and hugged her.

"What happened Ellie?" Tony asked.

"He's dead, he died right in front of me!" Ellie sobbed into Tony's shoulder.

"Who? Thor?" Tony asked with confusion.

Ellie didn't respond and continued to sob into him for a few more moments before regaining her composure as best as she could, "I need to go." She turned around as if she was going to leave, but then Tony grabbed her hand.

"Where?" Tony asked, gripping her hand tightly, afraid that if he let go she would teleport away without him.

"London," Ellie replied, "Dad, I don't know how this is going to go. But I have to finish this."

"Finish what?" Tony asked.

Ellie shook her head, "Thank you, Dad, it was nice to be happy, for a while. I love you." She squeezed his hand gently, and then she disappeared, and Tony's hand was left holding nothing but rain.

Tony ran down the stairs, "Jarvis, what is going on in London?"

* * *

Thor was fighting some dark elves, Malekith had just shown up and he had still not seen any sign of Ellie. It was that moment when he noticed that many of the elves were congregating. Suddenly they were all thrown away by a massive show of energy, standing there was Ellie. Her hair was wet, and her suit was covered in blood, dark red was her own, black was elven, and the lighter, more recent red was Loki's.

"Lady Stark! I was beginning to fear you would not come." Thor said.

Ellie didn't respond, she merely turned to Malekith and drew her sword and dagger.

They both turned to see Malekith approaching them, "You needn't have come so far, death would have come to you soon enough."

"Not by your hand," Thor said bravely.

"Your universe was never meant to be, your world and your family will be extinguished!" Malekith shouted and threw sharp tendrils of what looked like black sand at them.

Ellie created a shield around the both of them that deflected the tendrils back at Malekith. Thor took this moment of weakness to throw his hammer at Malekith. He went flying and Thor flew after him, leaving Ellie to deal with the elves.

* * *

Tony had woken up Steve and Bruce, they were watching the news, and Tony wanted to fly over there and do something.

"Tony, even if you _could_ make it there in time to do anything, this seems like it's a little out of our depth!" Bruce exclaimed.

"I mean look at Thor, he's bleeding, I've never seen him _bleed_ , not even after going head to head with the big guy here," Steve said gesturing to Bruce.

"Just look Tony, she seems fine," Bruce said, pointing at the screen where there was a shot of Ellie fighting the elves, "What if you went over there and died? You think she'd just be able to keep going like that?"

Tony sighed, "I can't just watch and do nothing! The way she spoke to me up there..."

"What?" Bruce asked.

"It was like she wasn't coming back," Tony told them.

The three of them sat down and continued to watch the news. Ellie had wormed her way into all of their hearts, and they would be devastated if anything were to happen to her.

* * *

Ellie had just killed what felt like a million dark elves, and they just kept coming, but then she saw Malekith emerge from a discontinuity without Thor. He seemed to be gathering up energy for his final play.

She looked through the power of the soul stone to see if Thor was alright, and when she saw that he was on his way, she set her gaze upon Malekith.

She began to push her way through what felt like a sandstorm.

As she approached him, he turned to face her, "Darkness has returned, have you come to witness the end of your universe?" He asked.

"Not quite," Ellie said.

" _You_? A mortal? You think you can stop all this?" He demanded, "The Aether cannot be destroyed."

"Neither can I," Ellie said, she began to let go of some of the control she had over the infinity stones, and her eyes began to glow, and the air around her hummed with power.

"You would unleash a power you cannot control?!" Malekith roared over the storm, "That would be the end of us both!"

Ellie took a breath, "I'm counting on it." And she let go.

Thor was flying towards Ellie as fast as he could, he wasn't sure exactly what she was planning on doing, but he wasn't going to lose anyone else today. Suddenly he was blinded by a bright light, followed by a shock wave, he was knocked out of the sky, and landed hard.

He landed in the area in front of Malekith's ship, which Thor noticed was falling towards him.

"Thor!" Jane cried running towards him.

"Where's Lady Stark?" Thor asked blearily, his ears were still ringing from the explosion, Jane frowned and looked down.

"Thor we need to move." She urged, trying to pull him to his feet.

"Where's Stark? Where's Ellie?!" Thor cried.

"Thor she's gone!" Jane shouted, which seemed to snap Thor's attention to her, "We need to move!"

Thor nodded and grabbed her and flew them to where Selvig, Darcy and her intern were standing at a safe distance.

Thor watched the ship fall and collapse with horror, when the dust had settled he flew over to the wreckage and was desperately looking for any traces of Ellie. His heart leapt up with hope as he spotted her dagger in the rubble. He quickly began to dig through the rocks and when he saw her hand, he began to dig faster. Eventually, he had her completely uncovered.

Jane ran up to Thor, "You found her!" She exclaimed. Jane knelt down and hovered her hand over Ellie's mouth and nose, her smile fell. She put two fingers to the side of Ellie's neck... and she felt nothing. "Thor..." Jane started, but she couldn't speak the words. "I'm sorry."

A single tear fell down Thor's face, he gripped Ellie's hand, "I'm so sorry," He whispered to her.

Thor stood and gently picked up her body and called on Heimdall to take them to the newly-named Avengers Tower.

* * *

Tony was watching the news with anxiety, Thor had disappeared.

"At this time we have no details on the whereabouts of Thor, but it appears that Bellicose Stark is approaching the ship." The news reporter said.

Steve and Bruce sent worried glances to one another as Tony leaned forwards in his seat.

They watched Ellie fight through the dark elves and make her way into the sandstorm that surrounded the ship.

For a few moments nothing happened, then there was an extremely bright light, and then the cameras went dead.

Tony and the others stood, "Jarvis, what's going on?" Tony asked.

"It appears that there was an extremely high energy discharge that was then contained and directed. The scans of the military drones show... no signs of life." Jarvis reported.

Tony, without a word, walked to the stairwell and made his way to the roof where a thunderstorm was brewing.

"Should we go after him?" Steve asked.

Bruce shook his head, "He's gonna need some time." He paused, "We should call Pepper."

"And Rhodes," Steve added.

It was after about half an hour did something strange happen, Tony was still standing on the roof, staring at the last place he had seen his daughter, wondering if he could have done anything more. It was then that lightning struck the building in front of Tony, breaking his deep thought and making him jump.

Where the lightning had hit was now standing Thor, holding Ellie in his arms, "Tony, I-"

"What happened?!" Tony yelled, "Is she okay?!"

Thor looked down with teary eyes, "I... I'm so sorry Tony."

Tony looked at Ellie's limp body, and he refused to believe what Thor was telling him. "Bring her inside quickly!" Tony ran down the stairs to the penthouse, "Bruce!" He called frantically. He gestured for Thor to place Ellie on the closest flat surface which was the table.

Steve's eyes went wide as he saw Ellie in Thor's arms.

Bruce ran over to the table and did what Jane had done, checking to see if she was breathing, and after being disappointed, checking to see if she had a pulse. Bruce turned to Tony, and the man didn't even need to say anything before Tony understood.

Tony fell to his knees, and all he could hear was the intense ringing in his ears.

Bruce was unwilling to accept this result. He walked back over to Ellie and re-checked everything. He even decided to see her pupillary response. He carefully opened one of her eyes, and her pupil contracted. Bruce jumped back, and Steve stared, "What is it?"

Bruce needed to look again as he was quite certain that he had just been imagining that. He opened her eye again, and it happened again. "I... I don't understand."

"Don't understand what?" Steve asked.

"Her pupil's, they're still dialating," Bruce said while checking the other eye. It was the same. "This shouldn't happen on someone who's..." Bruce couldn't say the word.

"Check her reflexes," Steve said.

Bruce pointed at him, "Good idea."

Tony was still sitting on the floor. He didn't notice the commotion around Ellie at the table.

Bruce tested a few common reflexes, and they were all normal. This was decided _not normal_ for someone who doesn't have a heartbeat.

"We need to do a brain scan," Bruce said to Steve. Thor didn't really understand what was going on, but he as following with great interest. He had lost too many people over these two days, he couldn't bear to lose another. "Jarvis, is there a CT machine in the labs upstairs?"

"Yes, on the sixtieth floor," Jarvis replied.

"Thor, can you take her?" Steve asked, "I'm going to call Pepper." They all then looked to Tony, "And see if I can get Tony to snap out of it."

Bruce and Thor nodded. Thor picked Ellie up once again and followed Bruce into the elevator. They silently made their way up to the lab, "Here, it's this one," Bruce said to Thor. "Place her head here."

Thor obeyed silently and watched as Bruce started the machine and covered his mouth as he saw the results.

"She's alive," Bruce breathed. Thor took a step towards Ellie's body and he saw something incredible.

"Banner, look at this," Thor said.

Bruce walked around to see what Thor was talking about. The wound on Ellie's shoulder was starting to stitch itself together. He pulled his glasses over his eyes, "I've never seen anything like this before."

"What's going on?" Steve asked as he entered the room.

Bruce looked at him with confusion, "Shouldn't you be with Tony?"

"Pepper got here, I thought I should let them have a little space," Steve said.

Bruce and Thor nodded, "Well, I think she's alive. Her brain is active, and I don't know how... but blood is flowing in her body."

"But her heart still isn't beating?" Steve asked.

Bruce shook his head, "No, and she's not breathing either. But the cut on her shoulder, it's healing rapidly... so, maybe her heart will restart on its own."

"And if it doesn't?" Steve asked.

"I think we should give her some time, if after a few hours it doesn't start on its own, then maybe we can try restarting it ourselves."

All three of them turned to look at the elevator as it dinged and opened. It was Pepper.

She was crying, "What is going on? Where is she?"

"Pepper, Ellie is alive," Steve said.

Pepper's hands flew to cover her mouth in shock. "She's alive?" She asked. Not yet wanting to believe it.

"Yes," Steve replied.

Pepper began to cry tears of relief, "I'm going to go tell Tony!" She exclaimed.

After Tony was reassured of Ellie's alive-ness, they moved her to her bedroom. It took another hour, but eventually, she started to breathe again, but still no heartbeat. Another hour later, and it finally happened. Her heart started off slowly, but eventually became stronger, until finally, three and a half hours after her apparent death, Ellie woke up.


	12. Chapter 12

Ellie was sitting at the table in the kitchen/living room, Steve and Pepper had made her a hot drink, and wrapped her in a blanket. Ellie had yet to say anything, Steve thought that she was in shock.

Tony, Bruce and Thor came into the apartment. Tony quickly went to Ellie's side. He hugged her tightly, and she relaxed slightly. He pulled back and looked her over for any injuries.

"Are you okay?" He asked. Ellie nodded in response but didn't say anything. "What did you do?" Tony asked.

"I don't really know," Ellie said. She looked up for the first time, and Tony noticed her eyes had changed. There was now a ring of red around her pupil, adding to the orange and blue. Before Tony had a chance to ask about it, Ellie stood and looked around, "How long have I... been gone?"

Tony rubbed his still-red eyes, "Almost four hours."

Ellie nodded slowly, "Hmm..."

"What's going on?" Steve asked.

"It just doesn't make sense," Ellie said, standing, and beginning to pace. "I was there, in London, and then... I was somewhere else... it just felt very... strange, like a dream you wake up from and then can't quite remember."

Steve and Tony shared a concerned glance, "Where?" Tony asked.

"I can't quite put my finger on it, but I feel like I've been there before. It was here, on Earth, I'm sure it was, but everything looked... different," Ellie explained.

Thor then stepped forwards, "You must have absorbed the power of the reality stone when you destroyed its host, it's possible you visited another reality, another dimension."

"I'm sorry," Ellie said, looking at Thor.

A grief-stricken look came across Thor's face, "As am I," Thor said and bowed his head to her slightly. "I must return to Asgard, but I will be back."

Ellie nodded, solemnly. Thor went up to the roof and as they heard lightning strike somewhere off in the distance, they knew Thor was gone.

"You don't look too good kid," Tony said with concern.

"I..." Ellie started weakly, "I don't feel very good."

She tried to take a step forward, but she fell. Luckily, Steve managed to jump up and catch her before she fell to the ground. Tony and Bruce ran forwards while Pepper jumped up from her seat as well.

"Ellie, what's wrong?" Tony asked.

Ellie wasn't really responsive, and Steve carefully put her down on the floor.

Bruce felt her skin, "Tony, she's burning up."

Tony furrowed his eyebrows, he didn't know what to do. They couldn't take her to a hospital, Tony was pretty sure that they weren't equipped for whatever strange thing was happening now.

Ellie's eyes fluttered open and she took a deep breath. She sat up, and Tony gave her a hand so that she could stand.

"What happened? What _is_ happening?" Tony asked.

Ellie looked at Tony and shook her head slightly, "I don't know."

Tony, Bruce and Steve shared a concerned look, while Pepper went up to Ellie.

"Listen, Ellie, you've had a long day, you're covered in blood. Let's get you a nice warm shower and something to eat."

Pepper lead Ellie away, leaving Tony, Bruce and Steve.

Tony ran a hand through his hair, "Oh god Ellie."

Bruce and Steve shared a glance, "What's on your mind?" Steve asked.

Tony scoffed, "What isn't?" He sighed, "Where did she learn how to do that?"

"How to do what?" Bruce asked.

"Fight like that," Steve answered and Tony sent him a questioning glance, "I'm not the only one who saw her fighting on the news, people are going to have questions, like how she kept up with a god."

Tony nodded and sighed again, "Loki's dead."

Bruce and Steve again shared a confused glance, "Is that a good thing... or a bad thing..." Bruce hesitantly asked, not really sure why Tony brought it up.

"He and Ellie were friends apparently, they were very close," He paused, "She was covered in his blood when she came here the first time."

"That poor kid," Bruce said.

Steve was confused, "Did she tell you this?"

"More or less," Tony said, "She told me how they met, they've known each other for years, apparently it was only recently that he went off the rocker. Ellie told me that he was doing it to protect her from... something... some guy, Thanos, I think."

"I don't really care about his moral reasons," Steve said.

"I know I just-" Tony stopped, "It's her birthday today."

Bruce just shook his head, "You're going to have a lot of damage control on this one Tony."

...

About an hour later everyone had left, Steve and Bruce went back to sleep, Pepper went back to her apartment, and Thor had yet to return from Asgard.

Ellie came into the living room after everyone had left and saw that Tony was still awake, sipping a drink while sitting on the couch, watching the storm over the city.

Tony heard her footsteps and turned to look at her, "You should get some rest kid, you've had a long day."

"So have you," she said.

There were several moments of silence before Tony spoke again, "Thor told me what happened. I'll never understand, but I know you two were close. I'm sorry."

"It was my fault."

Tony's head shot up, "What?"

"He died, and it was my fault. I could have teleported us away, or-" Ellie was cut off by Tony.

He gripped her shoulders, "Listen, Ellie, I don't know what happened, but I _know_ that it wasn't your fault."

Ellie hugged Tony tightly as she sobbed into his shoulder.

* * *

Tony was concerned about Ellie. Over the past week, she had practically locked herself in one of the many labs a Stark tower, working on some project that she wouldn't explain. She never smiled anymore, Tony was quite certain it had everything to do with Loki's death, but every time he tried to broach the subject she either refused to speak and completely ignored him, or she would totally snap and yell at him about how he didn't know anything and to stop asking.

Steve had left to go to Washington with Natasha, and Bruce had been invited to help with some research in a lab in Korea.

It left Tony, Pepper and Ellie back to their family unit, but nothing was the same. Ellie barely spoke to anyone, she didn't eat, didn't sleep. All she did was work, and the schematics for whatever she was doing were extremely complicated, Tony couldn't even understand what she was building.

After a particularly long day, Tony went down to the lab/workshop to try and persuade Ellie to take a break, eat something, and maybe get some sleep.

Tony came into the lab and saw that it was in its usual state of disarray, or organized chaos as Ellie preferred to call it. She was video calling someone, Tony stood out of view so he could listen in, "If you could run the simulations, I know it might be hard to generate but-"

"It's no problem, Ellie, I'll do as much as I can." It was Bruce's voice on the other end, presumably from the lab in Korea.

"Thank you, I just need to know how long..." She trailed off.

"I'll try to find as accurate data as I can," Bruce paused, "Does Tony know anything about this?"

"No, and I'd like to keep it that way. You know why."

Bruce sighed, "Yeah, I guess... Well, I'll let you know when I have a number. Until then, take care of yourself."

"Thanks, Bruce." The call ended.

Tony wasn't really sure what to make of it, Ellie was going behind his back with Banner doing... _something_. Whatever it was, it didn't sound too good.

He could hear Ellie sigh, "How much of that did you hear exactly?"

'Crap' Tony thought, he wasn't being as stealthy as he had imagined.

"I don't know, what's this secret experiment that you don't want me knowing anything about?" He asked, turning the corner and facing Ellie. He was still getting used to the red in her eyes.

She stared at him with tired eyes. On the table in front of her were her daggers, suit, some red fabric, and something else Tony had never seen before. It looked like some sort of retrofitted ventilation mask.

Ellie rubbed her neck and looked him right in the eyes, "I didn't want you to know, but now that you do I suppose I'll explain." She sat down on a chair at her workbench. "My cells are deteriorating faster than my body can fix them. I need to know when... when it will reach a critical level."

Tony stared at her in shock, "So... what you're saying is that you're-you're-"

"Dying?" Ellie finished, "I'm pretty sure." Tony was on the brink of tears, and so was Ellie. Tony quickly closed the distance between the two of them and hugged her tightly, "I don't really want to die," she choked out.

"You won't, we'll find a way to fix this," Tony comforted.

Ellie nodded, pulled away, and wiped her eyes. "I finished my project. Portable, streamlined ventilator. It'll allow you to breathe in space for thirty seconds."

"Only thirty? What could you do with that?" Tony asked, wiping his eyes clear as well.

"For me? That would enough time to teleport anywhere where there's air, not sure if it's super useful for anyone else."

"That might come in handy, if you ever went to space that is," Tony said with a proud smile. "Now, I think it's time for us both to get some rest."

Ellie nodded and followed Tony upstairs...

Later that night Ellie was lying awake in her bed, she looked over at the clock. It read 4:37 am.

"Jarvis?" Ellie asked quietly, "Is Tony asleep?"

"Yes, he is in the middle of a deep cycle. Would you like me to wake him?" Jarvis responded, also in a quiet tone.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Ellie whisper yelled.

She sat up on her bed and crept downstairs to the lab. She quickly changed into her combat suit, put her weapons in their spots, grabbed the ventilator and put it in a small bag along with some other things.

She had also made a scarf out of the same fabric as her suit, which she had reverse engineered. It was one of the most versatile fabrics on earth, it was fireproof to very high temperatures, bulletproof, and it was very flexible. She wrapped it around her neck and over her head. She then pulled out two letters, one for Tony and one for Pepper, and left them on her desk.

She knew that leaving letters was not the best things to do, but anything else was too hard, she was afraid she would lose her nerve.

She took a deep breath and teleported to the roof, where she could see that Thor was about to arrive.

He was already there when she appeared in front of him, and he was slightly startled by her sudden appearance.

"Lady Stark! You seem ready for battle, have I missed something?" Thor asked her.

"No," Ellie started, "Where is he?"

"Where is who?" Thor asked.

"Thanos. I'm going after him."

"Stark, I cannot condone this course of action. He is regarded as the Mad Titan, no one has stood against him and won."

"No one yet." Ellie took a step forward, "I'm going after him whether you help me or not. If you know anything I would appreciate it."

Thor sighed, "I do not know where you might find him, but I do know that there is someone who might. The Collector, his real name is Taneleer Tivan. I believe he has had some dealings with Thanos before."

Ellie nodded, "Where can I find him?"

"Lady Stark, are you certain that this-"

"I am." Ellie's face was unreadable, shrouded by her scarf, but Thor could tell she was determined.

"There is a planet, called Knowhere. It is the skull of a celestial being from long ago..." Thor trailed off as Ellie closed her eyes. She was using the combined powers of the space stone and the soul stone to see the location in her mind. Then all she had to do from there was imagine herself there and she would be.

Once Ellie could see the place in her mind, she opened her eyes.

"Thank you."

Thor looked at her sadly, "Ellie, if you're doing this for Loki... he would not want you to."

"I would believe that if _he_ were standing here telling me that."

Thor's eyes darkened, and after a moment's thought, he nodded, "I wish you luck Lady Stark. If you ever need my assistance..."

"I will," Ellie said, with a nod, she disappeared.

Tony woke up that morning and knew something was wrong. Call it fathers intuition, but he knew Ellie had done something stupid.

"Jarvis, is Ellie here?" Tony asked quickly.

"No, sir. It appears that she left about three hours ago. Thor is also here waiting for you."

"What?" Tony muttered.

He quickly made his way into the living room where Thor was, in fact, sitting, waiting for him.

"Ah, Stark! Good to-"

"Did you see Ellie?" Tony interrupted.

"Oh yes, she was just leaving when I arrived."

"Where did she say she was going exactly?"

"Well, she was taking up a noble quest, to kill one of the evilest beings in the universe. I warned her against it, but she was set. I pointed her in the direction of someone who might know where he is," Thor told him. He wasn't quite getting why Tony seemed upset currently.

"And where is that exactly?" Tony demanded.

* * *

Peter Quill had had a long day. He had split apart a fight between Rocket and Drax, and on top of that Gamora had just tried to cut off his balls. Other than that it had been a good day. Some weird pink lady had come to "fetch them for her master", and now they were finally going to meet this infamous Collector.

When they entered the fairly impressive collection area, Peter noticed one problem. There was a woman in orange and red holding a sword to the Collector's throat.

"Woah! Woah! Woah!" Peter cried. If this lady killed this dude then all their units were as good as gone and they had escaped that prison for nothing.

She turned to look at them, but most of her face was covered by a red shawl.

"Listen, I do not know what your quarrel is with this man, but we cannot allow you to kill him," Gamora spoke diplomatically. Although her tone was slightly offset by Rocket pulling out his gun and aiming it at her.

The woman turned back to the Collector, "Tell me where he is, now."

"I don't know, I swear... but perhaps she does," The Collector said and pointed to Gamora.

The woman lowered her sword, "I need to find Thanos," Her voice was slightly rough.

Gamora looked at her with surprise, "Whatever you are looking for, I can assure you, finding him is not it."

"Oh, I rather think it is," She said and sheathed her sword, "I'm going to kill him."

"I don't think that you know what you're getting into, he is not-" Gamora argued, but was cut off by the woman lunging forwards, engaging Gamora in an attack.

Gamora went to strike, but then suddenly the woman wasn't there anymore, she was behind her. The woman kicked out Gamora's legs from under her, Gamora swung her legs around and tried to trip her, but she just appeared somewhere else. Rocket was trying to intervene, but he couldn't ever get a target on the woman because of her erratic movements.

After a few minutes, only the mysterious woman was able to land any hits on Gamora, and they were both beginning to tire. The woman stopped fighting and appeared a few meters away from Gamora.

"If you are an ally of Thanos, then I will have no mercy for you. If you are not, tell me where he is."

Gamora was breathing heavy, "How can you do that? It's impossible!"

"It doesn't matter, now tell me."

Gamora was silent for a moment, but in that moment, Peter had an idea.

"She'll tell you. After you help us sell this orb and leave the planet safely."

"Peter!" Gamora hissed.

"One moment ma'am," Rocket spoke. The woman gestured for them to do as they pleased, knowing she had the upper hand.

They huddled together, "What are you thinking Quill?!" Gamora demanded.

"What? Think about it, Ronan and the Ravagers will still think we have the orb for a while after we sell it. She's obviously powerful, so..."

"You know, I think I'm with Quill on this one," Rocket glanced at the woman, who seemed to be looking around at the collector's items as they deliberated. "I don't really want to piss her off."

Gamora sighed, "What if she finds out who I am?"

"Well..." Peter started, not knowing where he was going, "If it happens we'll figure it out."

"Alright, sorry ma'am," Rocket said politely, really not wanting to fight this woman. "If you want to know where Thanos is, you help us leave the planet safely, then we'll tell you."

The woman seemed to think about it for a moment, "Fine."

They all internally breathed out a sigh of relief.

"So what do we call you? No offence Rocket, but ma'am seems a little formal," Peter asked her.

"Call me Stark." Everyone nodded.

The Collector, now sensing that his life was no longer in danger, spoke once again.

"Do you have it? The orb?"

Peter took it out of his knapsack and gave it to the strange man.

"My friends," The Collector began, "Before time itself, there were six singularities. Then the universe exploded into existence and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots... Infinity stones."

The mysterious woman from before, Stark, was paying fairly close attention, and Quill was starting to become concerned that she was going to steal the orb.

"These stones, it seems, can only be brandished by beings of extraordinary strength. Observe." He motioned to a holographic screen above them.

It showed a large being with the power stone mowing down a planet, "There's a little pee coming out of me right now," Peter said.

The woman seemed either indifferent or unimpressed by what she was just shown. This made Peter slightly more uncomfortable if it was even possible.

The Collector began to shake with wither joy or anticipation, "Beautiful," He spoke as the stone was fully revealed.

"Blah, blah, blah. We're all very fascinated, but we want to get paid," Rocket interjected.

"How would you like to be paid?" The Collector asked.

"What do you think fancy man? Units!"

"So you four just learned that this is the most powerful object in the galaxy, and you're going to let him keep it here... out in the open... where anyone on this planet could just steal it?" Stark asked.

"Well... yeah," Quill said.

"I assure you... my security is quite enough to keep anyone of substance away," The Collector said.

Stark hummed, and Quill could tell she was unconvinced. Not that it mattered, because at that moment something happened.

The pink woman who had led them here had grabbed the stone. She looked like she was burning alive as she cried: "I will no longer be your slave!"

She then erupted into purple energy, causing a massive explosion. Stark dove out of the way, alongside Peter and Gamora.

It was only a few agonizing moments, but it was enough to make Peter regret every life choice he ever made.

When it was over. He stood up, brushed himself off, grabbed the orb like he didn't know it was a ball of flaming death, and walked out of there like nothing had happened. For a few seconds anyway.


	13. Chapter 13

_Dear Pepper,_

 _Take care of Tony, won't you? I know he has a funny way of going about it, but he does love you._

 _You're pretty awesome you know that? You basically run the entire company yourself, you keep Tony and me from killing ourselves all the time, and you're more of a genius than I am. I really look up to you Pepper, and I hope I'm making you proud by doing what's right._

 _Love, Ellie._

Pepper read her letter and looked around the workshop in shock. She had a hand over her mouth and was trying to suppress tears. Pepper had come to see Ellie as _her_ daughter as well as Tony's. And now... she was gone.

Pepper looked to Tony who was trying to suppress tears of his own. As they locked eyes they both let go. They were hugging and sobbing, "She's all alone, she's all alone!" Pepper repeated frantically between sobs.

Tony couldn't bring himself to say anything, not that he would've been able to with how hard he was crying into Pepper's shoulder.

* * *

"How could I think Tivan could hold whatever was in that orb?!" Gamora shouted once everyone was gathered clear of the blast.

Rocket looked at Gamora with wide eyes, "What do you still have it for?!"

"Well, what are we going to do? Just leave it in there?" Peter asked.

"I can't believe you had that in your purse!" Rocket cried.

"We have to bring this to the Nova Corps. There's a chance they could contain it," Gamora said.

"Are you kidding me?!" Rocket cried, "We're wanted by the Nova Corps! Why don't we just give it Ronan?"

During this argument, Stark and Groot were looking at each other with interest.

"I am Groot."

"Hi Groot, I'm Stark."

"I am Groot."

"I'm Stark."

"I am Groot."

"Good to know we understand each other," Stark said semi-sarcastically.

Then several ships descended in front of them, and they saw Drax waiting.

"At last! I shall meet my foe and destroy him!" He shouted.

"Is he with you guys?" Stark asked Rocket.

"It's a long story," Rocket said.

"You called Ronan?!" Peter shouted.

At the same time, Peter could see Yondu emerging from the crowd.

Rocket gestured for Groot and Stark to follow him, and he led them to some sort of pods.

"Stark, do you know how to fly?" Rocket asked her, she shook her head no.

"I am Groot."

"No Groot, you're too big, wait down here with Stark," Rocket said before blasting off.

Stark watched the battle above, "Do they need help?"

"I am Groot."

"I think that's a no."

"I am Groot."

Stark just looked at him (it?) quizzically.

"So... do you only say 'I am Groot'?"

"I am Groot. I... am Groot."

"Okay, I think that's a yes then."

A few silent moments passed, then they saw Drax fly into a tank of yellow goop. A large, blue man, Ronan, then watched as he sunk to the bottom and drowned.

Stark made a move to stand and unsheath her sword, but Groot forced her back down.

"I am Groot," He said quietly.

Stark got the message and remained seated. Eventually, when Ronan had left, Groot and Ellie went over to the tank of spinal fluid.

Groot reached in and pulled him out. He then made a knife-like contraption grow from his hand, and he stabbed Drax in the chest.

Suddenly he began to breathe again and sat up while choking and gasping.

"Are you alright?" Stark asked him.

Drax nodded, "I saw you with Peter Quill, and Rocket the Raccoon. Are you with us now?" He asked.

"Until that green woman gives me the information I need, then I guess so."

"What information do you need?" Drax asked.

"I need to know where Thanos is."

"Thanos? Are you an ally of his?"

"No, I'm going to kill him."

"I too would like to kill Thanos, after I kill Ronan that is."

"Why would you want to kill either of them?" Stark asked.

"Because Ronan killed my wife and my daughter, and he is a puppet of Thanos," Drax told her. "But I was a fool to think I was ready."

"Well, it's hard to do alone," Stark said, feeling empathy for the man.

"Why are you after Thanos?" He asked.

"Because he tortured my best friend, made him hurt the people he loved and do things he didn't want to do. He drove him insane, and then he died... he was supposed to live a lot longer than I was, but now I'm here and he's not."

Drax nodded in understanding. "What's your name?"

"Stark."

"I am Drax."

Suddenly, one of the pods from before came crashing down in front of them, and Rocket jumped out.

"Blasted idiot. They're all idiots! Quill just got himself captured!" Rocket shouted and then turned to Drax, "None of this ever would have happened if you didn't try to single-handedly take on a frickin' army!" Drax looked down sadly, "Oh, boo-hoo-hoo, my wife and child are dead!" Rocket mocked. While he couldn't see Stark's face, he could feel her disapproval. "I don't care if it's mean! Everybody's got dead people! That's no excuse to get everybody else dead along the way! Come on, Groot. Ronan has the stone. The only chance we got is to get to the other side of the universe as fast as we can and maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to live full lives before that whack-job ever gets there!"

Groot stood up, "I am Groot."

"Save them? How?"

"I am Groot."

"I know they're the only friends that we ever had, but there's an army of Ravagers around them. And there's only two of us!"

Drax stood and said, "Three."

Stark sighed, "Four. Until I find out what I need to know."

"Urgh!" Rocket growled in annoyance, he turned and started to kick a patch of grass on the ground in annoyance, "You're making me beat up grass!"

 _Dear Tony,_

 _I heard back from Bruce, it's longer than I expected. Three years. It's enough to finish what I need to._

 _After I kill Thanos I'll come back. But I need to do the right thing, for the universe, and for me._

 _I promise I'll come back,_

 _Love Ellie._

Tony read his letter and his whole body went numb. Three years? She only had _three years?!_ She would only be 21, just barely an adult, just barely getting her life started, and now she wouldn't get to.

Tony sat in his chair and began to cry all over again, Pepper noticed. She was making them tea to help calm them after they had found the letter to Pepper.

Pepper didn't ask, she didn't ask because she didn't want to know, not really. Certainly not after seeing Tony's reaction. She knew it was bad, but when Tony told her... told her that _their_ daughter was going to die in three years, and there was nothing anyone could do about it... She dropped the mugs and didn't care as they shattered on the floor.

* * *

"How exactly are they supposed to hand them over if you only give them five seconds?" Stark asked Rocket.

"Listen, we'll figure that out as we go, just push that purple button," Rocket instructed.

She pushed the button that would hail the Ravager ship.

"Attention idiots!" He announced, "The lunatic on top of this craft is holding a Hadron Enforcer. A weapon of my own design. If you don't hand over our companions now, he's gonna tear your ship a new one. A very big new one! I'm giving you to the count of five," Rocket paused, "Five, four, three-"

"No no, no, no! Rocket calm down! It's me, we figured it out we're fine!" Peter shouted over the intercom.

Stark shook her head in amusement, "Oh, hey Quill."

After a brief period of confusion, Rocket, Groot, Drax and Stark all boarded the Ravager ship. They were sitting on boxes in the cargo hold, trying to figure out a plan.

"You call that "figured it out"? We're gonna rob the guys who just beat us senseless?" Rocket asked.

"Well, we didn't have ninja assassin lady with us before!" Peter gestured to Stark, "And you want to talk about senseless? How about trying to save us by blowing us up?"

"We were only gonna blow you up if they didn't turn you over!"

"And how on earth were they gonna turn us over when you only gave them a count of five?!" Peter cried.

Stark gestured towards Quill in agreement and Rocket looked at her and said, "Enough outa you Stark." He turned back to Peter, "We didn't have time to work out the minutiae of the plan. This is what we get for acting altruistically!"

"I am Groot."

"They _are_ ungrateful."

"What's important now is we get the Ravagers' army to help us save Xandar," Gamora said.

"Why, so we give it to this guy who'll just sell it to someone worse?" Stark asked.

"We'll figure that part out later," Peter said, "I have a plan..."

"What percentage?" Rocket asked.

"Like... 11%" Peter replied.

"That's barely a concept," Gamora said.

"I am Groot."

"So what if it's better than 10%, what does that have to do with anything?!" Rocket asked Groot exasperatedly.

"Guys. Come on. Yondu is gonna be here in two seconds. He expects to hear this big plan of ours. I need your help. I look around at us, you know what I see? Losers. I mean, like, folks who have lost stuff. And we have. Man, we have. All of us. Our homes, our families, normal lives. And, usually, life takes more than it gives, but not today. Today, it's given us something. It has given us a chance," Peter spoke.

"To do what?" Drax asked.

"To a give a shit. For once, not run away. I, for one, am not gonna stand by and watch as Ronan wipes out billions of innocent lives."

Gamora stood, "I have lived most my life surrounded by my enemies. I will be grateful to die among my friends."

Then Drax stood, "You are an honourable man, Quill. I will fight beside you. And in the end, see my wife and daughter again."

Stark then stood as well, "I came here to kill Thanos, but helping save the galaxy along the way can't hurt."

Groot stood, "I am Groot."

Everyone turned to look at Rocket, who sighed. "Oh, what the hell. I don't got that long a lifespan, anyway. Now I'm standing. You all happy? We're all standing up now. Bunch of jackasses, standing in a circle."

...

Yondu was ready to hear the plan, "Rocket will lead a team to blow a hole in the Dark Aster's starboard hull. Then, our craft and Yondu's will enter. Once they know we're on board, Ronan will isolate himself behind impenetrable security doors on deck. Which Gamora can disable by dismantling the power source. We'll make it to the flight deck, and I'll use the Hadron Enforcer to kill Ronan. Once Ronan's dead, we'll retrieve the stone. Use these devices to contain it."

"If you touch it, it will kill you," Gamora warned.

"I'll contact one of the Nova officers who arrested us. Hopefully, they'll believe we're there to help."

"There's one more thing we need to complete the plan." Rocket pointed a man who had a mechanized eyeball, "That guy's eye..."

"No! No, we don't. No, we don't need that guy's eye," Peter interjected.

"No, seriously, I need it! It's important to me!" Rocket exclaimed, barely containing his laughter.

* * *

Meanwhile on Earth...

"So you don't know where she went?" Rohdey asked Pepper.

"No, she left us these notes and she disappeared... but," Pepper paused and looked around the office in which she and Rhodey were sitting, "Bruce was running some tests for her, and he concluded that the energy in her body was killing her. She only has three years left. She said she wanted to do the right thing."

Rhodey rubbed his face, "Jesus. So Tony isn't handling this great?"

Pepper shook her head, "He was already..." She paused, "He hasn't been the same since New York, and this... this is just-" Pepper shook her head and blinked back threatening tears.

"Is he here?" Rhodey asked.

"No, he went upstate. He's supposed to go back to Malibu next week, but I think he's afraid if he leaves New York she'll come back and he'll be gone."

Rhodey sighed, "Okay, I'm going back to Malibu, I'll see if I can talk to him when he gets there."

"Thank you Rhodey, he needs... something."

"No problem Pepper," Rhodey stood, "Call me if you need anything alright?"

Pepper nodded and Rhodey left. They both felt awful, Ellie was out of their reach, and worse, out of Tony's reach. And they all knew there wasn't much they could do about it.

She was out there all alone, dying, angry, and without any help from home.

* * *

"So Stark, where are you from?" Peter asked the newest member of their little squad.

"Earth," Stark responded simply.

Peter's eyes widened, "Wait, you're from Earth?!"

"Uh, yeah," She said with confusion.

"So am I! I haven't been there since I was a kid! I've never met anyone else up here that was from Earth! How are things going down there?" Peter asked.

"Not great really, we just got invaded by aliens, but we won, so I guess it's fine," Ellie told him.

"But we have space travel now right? I mean, that's how you're here?"

"No, I'm here because... I teleported here."

"Oh," Peter said disappointedly, "But when I was there everyone was really excited about space, putting people on the moon was exciting and adventurous!"

"Yeah well now it's boring and costs a lot of money," Stark said.

"Phft, figures," Peter said with annoyance.

"We're almost there," Gamora reminded.

"I don't really know your names," Stark said.

"I'm Peter Quill, but you might also know me as S-" Gamora elbowed him in the side, "Ow! What was that for?!"

"No one calls you Star-Lord," She said. "I'm Gamora."

Stark turned to Peter, "So that's where you went..."

"Wait... you've heard of me?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, it was a pretty big story, I mean, I hadn't-" Stark stopped, she had been about to say she hadn't been born yet when he had gone missing, but she didn't quite want to reveal her age to these people. She didn't want them to think she wasn't able to keep up. "Not a lot of people just go missing like that."

Peter hummed, and the group fell into a moment of silence as they approached Ronan's ship.

The Ravagers launched some sort of blanketing rocket, Peter piloted them under it, so they could begin their assault from below.

They began to blast a hole in the side of the ship, but they were under heavy fire. It seemed like they would be killed before they were even able to enter Ronan's ship, but then the Nova Corps came to their aid.

"They got my dick message!" Peter exclaimed.

They flew right into the new hole in Ronan's ship, and Drax began to laugh hysterically.

Peter shot at the aliens within the ship, clearing a bit of a path for them. Gamora sighed in relief and said, "We're just like Kevin Bacon."

Stark snorted, "What?" She asked.

"Kevin Bacon, a legendary Terran outlaw, Peter's told us all about him," Gamora said.

"Oh," She was laughing and had to pause, "Right, yeah, a legendary outlaw."

"He _is_!" Peter cried.

"Okay," she laughed, "Sure."

They exited the ship, and it was pitch black.

"I can barely see," Drax said.

Groot then raised his arm, and beautiful lights began to stream from him, illuminating the space.

"When did you learn to do that?" Drax asked.

"I'm pretty sure the answer is I am Groot," Peter said.

"It's beautiful," Stark said, looking up and around them.

"The flight deck is 300 meters this way," Gamora spoke.

They continued on their path, "I want you all to know that I am grateful for your acceptance after my blunders. It is pleasing to once again have friends," Drax said. "You, Quill, are my friend."

"Thanks," Peter said.

"You, cloaked murderess, you are my friend," He said to Stark. Ever since he had discovered that their missions were similar he had begun to think of her as someone he could trust.

"Same here Drax," Stark said.

"This dumb tree, he is my friend."

"I am Groot."

"And this green whore, she, too-"

"Oh, you must stop!" Gamora shouted.

Suddenly, Nebula appeared in front of them, and Stark took a step back. She had seen that blue woman before, in her head, she flashed back to when ash was falling from the sky like rain. She looked across what used to be her home and saw _her_. She killed her parents, she was after the stone, she worked for Thanos. Now she was _here_ , and Stark wasn't quite sure what to do.

Drax looked at her with confusion but said nothing.

"Nebula! Sister-"

"Sister?!" Stark shouted from behind them, "She's your sister?"

"You sound familiar..." Nebula said.

"You killed my parents," Stark said.

"I-" Nebula was about to say something, but then stopped as she finally recognized her. "You... you have the soul stone."

"Oh I have more than just that," Stark said. Gamora and Peter looked at Stark with shock.

Stark teleported in front of Nebula and started to fight her, "Should we...?" Peter started.

"No, leave them. We have to get to Ronan," Gamora said, "I'll go disable the security doors."

They ran off in their separate directions and left Stark fighting with Nebula. Nebula knew that she wasn't doing very well in the fight, and she took off running in a specific direction. Eventually, she was standing on the edge of a hole in the ship.

"I didn't kill your parents," Nebula said, "You did." She fell backwards, down into the battlefield.

Stark stood there for a few moments, no one could tell, but a single tear was slipping down her cheek.

* * *

Peter pulled the trigger of the Hadron Enforcer, and it hit Ronan head on. Dust flew up into the air, and Drax shouted, "You did it!"

But as the dust settled, Peter could see the still-standing form of Ronan. Peter looked at Gamora in confusion and fear as Ronan pointed his hammer towards them. Suddenly, Stark appeared in front of them. She held out her hand, and when Ronan sent a wave of energy towards them, it stopped right in front of her. She sent it flying back towards Ronan. He stumbled backwards as his own power was used against him.

Stark pulled out her sword and dagger and ran towards him. She was doing alright, he couldn't touch her, but her attacks weren't doing much damage. She reached out her arm, charged with explosive energy, at the same time he held out his hammer, and the two blasts of energy collided, sending them both flying backwards. Ronan recovered faster. He marched over to Stark, who was just sitting up, and he grabbed her by the throat.

He choked her and asked Peter and the others, "Who is it you send to defy me?"

However, Ronan didn't continue because suddenly, Rocket flew his ship in through the window, hitting Ronan down and destroying the ship's controls in the process.

Once everyone had recovered, Drax looked around, "Where's Stark?"

Peter also began to look around and spotted her red scarf, the one she constantly wore over her face.

He ran over and found her lying on her side, facing away from them. He rolled her over and gasped, "Oh my God." She was so young. He had imagined a young woman, but in her mid-twenties, not a teenager.

"What is it, Peter? Is she hurt?" Gamora asked.

"She's alright, just..." He trailed off as he picked her up and brought her over to where the others were. Gamora had done the same with Rocket.

"She's a child," Drax said when he looked at her. He was reminded of his own daughter.

"How is this possible?" Gamora asked.

Peter shook his head, "We brought a kid with us on a suicide mission."

The group was silent; until they heard the creaking of wood. Groot was making a ball around them, reinforcing it with leaves, and putting some of the lights from before inside.

Then, Rocket began to come to. "No, Groot, you can't, you'll die," He said to his friend. "Why are you doing this?"

"We... are... Groot."

They hit the ground...


	14. Chapter 14

Pepper was sitting on the couch in the living room of Tony's mansion in Malibu. It was three in the morning, and Pepper couldn't sleep.

Tony had been especially off the rails lately, and he had actually admitted it.

"I'm a piping hot mess. It's been going on for a while, I haven't said anything." He had paused, "Nothing's been the same since New York. You experience things and then they're over and you still can't explain 'em. Gods, aliens, other dimensions. I...I'm just a man in a can. The only reason I haven't cracked up is probably because you moved in. Which is great. I love you, I'm lucky. But, honey, I can't sleep because I'm wondering if Ellie's okay. You go to bed and I come down here, I do what I know, I tinker."

Pepper felt bad for the man, she really did. And she understood what he was going through. The loss of Ellie had hit them both very hard, especially since it had been so unexpected, but he was going to have to get a hold of himself. He was going to kill himself if he kept not eating and sleeping.

The next day things went from bad to worse. The house was gone, blown up, and Tony along with it. Some part of Pepper hoped that Ellie didn't come back, just so she wouldn't have to see what her idiot father had gotten them all into.

* * *

Ellie was dreaming...

She was standing on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Someone walked up beside her, she turned, and it was Loki.

She looked away from him, and he looked at her in confusion, "Am I dead?" She asked.

"No," Loki told her and continued to watch her curiously.

"Then I'm dreaming," she said.

"I believe so," Loki said. He turned to face her, he brushed her cheek with his thumb. "You need to wake up," He told her.

For one cruel, sweet moment before she fully awoke, she thought he was alive, but then she remembered.

She woke with a groan. Her entire body was sore.

When she opened her eyes, she saw that Drax and Rocket were both there.

"Stark, finally, we've been waiting for you to wake up," Rocket said.

"We're alive?" She asked with a smile.

"Yeah, I know right. Weird," Rocket told her.

She laughed, "How'd you beat him?"

"Peter used the orb to destroy him," Drax said.

"With our help of course," Rocket added.

She smiled and sat up. Her arm was in a sling, which felt about right, judging from the pain in her right shoulder.

"We were wondering if you wanted to stay with us for a while, you know, until you're better" Rocket said as Drax led them down a series of hallways.

"I'd like that," Ellie told them with a smile.

* * *

Seven months later...

Tony was doing better, he was treating his PTSD, he was hanging out with the Avengers again. Only one thing was missing... but it was easy enough to smother those feelings with work, and so that was what he did.

In fact, they had just raided a Hydra base looking for Loki's sceptre, and they had found it. They were all in the Quin Jet heading back to Stark Towers when Jarvis spoke over the intercom.

"Mr. Stark, Ellie is at Avengers Tower."

"What?" Tony asked. The city of New York was now in their sights.

"She arrived approximately five minutes ago, she's waiting in your lab."

They landed at the tower, Barton was wheeled off, and Tony was sitting in his chair in silence.

"Aren't you... excited?" Steve asked.

"If she plans on staying," Tony said. Steve nodded in understanding. They walked out of the plane, and Tony made his way to his lab. Ellie was standing there, her hands folded behind her back, looking out over the New York skyline.

"Ellie?" Tony asked.

She turned to face him and smiled, she had a faint scar on her right cheek, and she gave off the impression of having aged, but otherwise, she looked exactly the same.

"Hey dad, it's good to see you," She said with a smile. "I saw you found the sceptre and I wanted to see it for myself."

Tony nodded, not really knowing what to say at first. "Do you- do you even know what we went through, what _I_ went through after you left? You can't just keep leaving notes and disappearing!" Tony said.

Ellie smiled at the ground, "I've been watching Tony, I do know. You've done a really good job at cleaning everything up. And I... know I shouldn't do that, but it just makes it easier to go."

"So... you've been watching? Why didn't you come back during the Mandarin attacks?" Tony asked, "Pepper almost died."

"I know, and I almost did, but I was injured, I wasn't sure how much help I would be," Ellie looked off into the distance, "And besides, you had it handled, even if you thought you didn't."

"You were injured?" Tony asked.

Ellie nodded, "A piece of metal stuck itself in my shoulder when I crashed a plane. It was alright though, Rocket knows his stuff."

"You crashed a plane?" Tony asked.

"Yeah well, we were running after this gang called Nova Craps, which was a terrible pun if you ask me, but we thought they had Nebula, and Peter was unconscious, I would've waited, but then the Ravagers showed up, and they're still after Peter, so I took control of the Milano, but then-" She stopped talking. "I... Sorry, that probably made no sense."

"Yeah..." Tony said, "You're alright though?"

"I'm fine, all healed up," She said. "Is Barton alright? I saw what happened at the Hydra base."

Tony looked at her with confusion, "Why didn't you come and help us?"

"It seemed like you had it covered, also I was dealing with something," Ellie explained.

Thor came in with the sceptre and saw Ellie, "Sister, how goes space?" Ellie stared at him for a moment, and sadness flashed across her face, followed by anger, followed by nothing. "I... apologize, I didn't mean to-"

"No, it's fine..." Ellie said. There was an awkward moment of silence in which Tony looked between Thor and Ellie with confusion. In the back of his mind something clicked, the ring with the emerald he could still see on her finger, and Thor calling her sister? Tony knew something was up, but he didn't want to admit it to himself right now. "Space is good, never a dull moment."

"And how goes your quest for vengeance?" Thor asked.

"So far so good. I killed Ronan... or... I _helped_ kill Ronan. I got a bit of a group together with me, they're helping me find Thanos," Ellie told him.

"Ronan the Accuser? Impressive, he is a mighty foe."

"I found another infinity stone," Ellie said.

Tony's eyes widened at this fact, "Tell me you didn't-"

"No, no of course not. If I had there would be purple in my eyes right now," Ellie said.

"Purple?" Thor asked, "You found the power stone?"

"Ronan had it, he was supposed to bring it to Thanos, but he had other ideas. I was... debating whether or not I should risk taking it. It's the most destructive, and I wasn't sure if I trusted anyone to keep it safe, but the Nova Corps has it now. It's in good hands."

"Good, I would not trust that power to anyone but you. If you feel secure in its safety then I do as well," Thor said and Ellie nodded.

Thor placed the sceptre down on one of the desks and Ellie looked at it, "Loki thought there was an infinity stone inside, but now that I look at it up close... it doesn't look like one."

"Perhaps my brother was mistaken," Thor said, "But then again, he always knew more than I about such things."

"He knew more than anyone," Ellie said. A sad look fell upon both Thor and Ellie's faces, and Tony once again got the impression that he had missed something. "I really wish I could ask him some questions right now."

"As do I..." Thor said with a hint of exasperation.

"Is everything alright on Asgard?" Ellie asked.

Thor shrugged, "There is no one but me to take the throne once my father passes, but I do not want it. Loki was always better at bureaucracy."

Ellie nodded, and the pair said no more.

"So, are you two going to stay for the celebrations?" Tony asked.

"Yeah sure," Ellie responded.

"Of course," Thor said.

"Come on, let's go check on Barton," Tony said after bringing Ellie up to speed on what he had been working on while she was gone. They walked into the lab in which he was laying under a machine, "Oh, he's flatlining, call it. Time?" Tony teased.

"No, no, no. I'm going to live forever. I'm gonna be made of plastic," Clint replied. He noticed Ellie was there, "Hey Ellie, how's it going?"

"Good enough I guess," Ellie said.

"So, how long are you staying?" Barton asked the question Tony was too afraid to.

"I need to be back in a week, and I also have something I need to do while I'm here, but that can wait for a few days," Ellie said. "But what about you? Are you feeling alright?"

"Me? Oh, I'm fine," He said and waved his hand to indicate nonchalance.

"Good, we can't have our Legolas dropping out on us now can we?" Ellie asked.

"If I'm Legolas, then who's Tony?"

"I was thinking Gimli."

Natasha snorted.

* * *

The Next Day...

The Avengers house party was full swing, Steve was introducing Ellie to Sam, Thor and Tony were bragging about their girlfriends, and Bruce and Natasha were flirting. All in all, it was shaping up to be a good night.

When most of the guests had left, the Avengers all sat down and began to talk about Thor's hammer.

"But, it's a trick!" Barton exclaimed.

"Not quite," Thor said.

"Uh, "Whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power!" Whatever man! It's a trick."

"Well then be my guest," Thor said an gestured to the hammer.

"Really?" Clint asked.

"Go on," Thor said with a grin.

"This is going to be beautiful," Rhodey said to Agent Hill, who was sitting beside him.

Ellie was grinning beside Tony, who was barely keeping in his laughter.

"Clint, you've had a tough week, we won't hold it against you if you can't get it up," Tony said. A round of laughter swept the table.

Clint gripped the hammer, took a deep breath, and pulled up. The hammer didn't move, not an inch, "I still don't know how you do it!" He exclaimed.

"Smell the silent judgment?" Tony asked.

"Well, please, Stark, by all means." Clint gestured toward the hammer.

Tony stood and Ellie snickered, "Some support would be appreciated kid," He said to Ellie, who hummed and nodded.

"Oh, here we go," Natasha said.

"Never one to shrink from an honest challenge," Tony said. "It's physics."

"Physics?" Ellie asked.

"So if I lift this I get to rule Asgard?" Tony asked Thor.

"Of course."

"I will be fair but firmly cruel," Tony said as he attempted to lift the hammer. "I'll be right back."

Tony came back with a gauntlet from his Iron Man suit and used the thrusters on it to help him in pulling it up. Still, it didn't work. He then got Rhodey to grab his arm and help him. Together, the two of them using their suits were still not enough to lift the hammer.

When they sat down, Bruce stood. He tried to pull it, but it did not move for him either. He then pretended to turn into the hulk, and everyone just stared at him. "No?" He asked, thinking it was funny. Natasha shook her head.

The next person to try was Steve, "Let's go, Steve, no pressure," Tony said.

"Come on Cap," Sam cheered.

Ellie and Thor glanced at each other and Ellie raised her eyebrows, indicating that she thought he might be able to lift it. Thor's expression became slightly worried as Steve gripped the hammer. He pulled, and it moved, slightly, but he couldn't lift it.

Thor breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Widow?" Tony asked.

"Oh, no no. That's not a question I need answered," Natasha said.

"All deference to the man who wouldn't be king, but it's rigged," Tony said.

"You bet your ass," Clint agreed.

"Steve, he said a bad language word," Hill said.

Steve turned to Tony, "Did you tell everyone about that?"

"The handle's imprinted, right? Like a security code. 'Whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints' is, I think, the literal translation?" Tony speculated.

"Yes, well that's, uh, that's a very, very interesting theory," Thor turned to Ellie, "Why don't you try?"

Everyone turned to look at her, "Me?" She asked. Thor nodded, and she stood, "Just for the record I don't want to rule Asgard."

She pulled, and it lifted easily in her hand, she laughed and tossed it to Thor, who caught it with the same ease.

"I take credit for that!" Tony announced, "That's my parenting."

They were all laughing along when suddenly a partially broken down robot appeared in the entrance to Tony's lab.

Tony tapped on his tablet, "Jarvis, we need a reboot. There's a faulty legionnaire suit."

"There was a terrible noise...and I was tangled in... in...strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy," The suit said.

Ellie shared a glance with Steve, "You killed someone?" He asked.

"Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world, we're faced with ugly choices," The suit spoke again.

"Who sent you?" Thor demanded.

"I see a suit of armour around the world," It spoke with Tony's voice.

"Ultron!" Bruce gasped.

"In the flesh. Or, no, not yet. Not this...chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission,"

"What mission?" Ellie asked.

"Peace in our time." Suddenly other robots flew out of Tony's lab and began attacking them.

Ellie dove out of the way of a blast fired at her and looked around at the madness.

"Enough!" She shouted. She raised her hands and created points of space discontinuity (basically mini-blackholes), and destroyed most of the robots.

"That was dramatic!" The one remaining one said, "I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to evolve?"

"There's only one path to peace... the Avengers' extinction," It said.

From behind Ellie, Thor threw his hammer and destroyed it.

Ellie turned to look at Tony, "What the hell did you do?"


	15. Chapter 15

Thor and Ellie went after the bot that stole the sceptre from Tony's lab. Ellie got a clearer picture of where it was heading each time they found a puddle of oil. Ellie was peering into an alleyway when she called to Thor, "Over here!"

There was glinting metal sticking out from a dumpster, Ellie and Thor moved quickly towards it. When Thor grabbed it, they were both disappointed and surprised to see it was the robot, but without the sceptre.

"Damn," Thor cursed.

"I don't understand, where-" Ellie was cut off by her own coughing. She looked at her hand, and there was blood, something she tried to hide by wiping away onto her back pants, but Thor had seen.

"Ellie... are you feeling unwell?"

Ellie looked away, "Didn't Tony tell you?"

"Tell me what?" Thor asked.

"I... don't have that long left."

"You mean... how is that possible? I watched as you regenerated back from death!"

"It seems like the energy of the infinity stones won't let anything else kill me, but that same energy gives no qualms about doing so itself" She started to cough again. She let out an angry grunt and hit the brick wall in front of her with her palm. A wave of energy knocked over the trash cans in the alley. "It's killing me."

"Have you told-"

"Tony? About these little... fits? No. I'd like to keep up a good appearance, if you wouldn't mind keeping this to yourself."

Thor nodded, "I'm sorry, I'm sure Loki never intended for this to hurt you."

"I know," Ellie said.

She held out her hand for him to take so that she could teleport them back to the tower, but Thor hesitated.

"Can I ask you something about Loki?" Thor asked. Ellie furrowed her eyebrows but nodded. "Did he ever say anything about me?"

"Of course, all the time," Ellie said, "You were his hero, I could always tell." Thor was silent and Ellie looked at him sadly, obviously neither of them had truly moved past his death. Thor was almost on the brink of tears, and so was Ellie.

"I apologize, I didn't mean to..." He trailed off, not really knowing what to say.

"Thor, he was your little brother, you have every right to be upset," Ellie told him.

They both rubbed at their eyes, and Ellie held out her hand once again. Thor grasped it, and they were back at Stark Tower.

Ellie and Thor appeared just as it seemed the rest of them had come up with a plan, "We found the bot, but no sceptre. I can't tell where it is," She told them.

Tony and Steve both looked down disappointment, "So what's the plan?" Thor asked.

"Ulysses Klaue," Tony said.

Ellie's eyes widened, "You told me about him, he was the one who-"

"Kept going on about being on the verge of a technological revolution? Yeah, that guy. He's one of Strucker's known associates. Do you think you can find him?" Tony asked.

Ellie briefly shut her eyes, "I see him."

"Do you recognize where he is?" Steve asked.

"I do," Ellie said with a nod. "We should move quickly, people like that tend to move around a lot."

Steve nodded, "You heard the lady. Suit up."

* * *

They landed the quin jet about a hundred meters from the abandoned ship Klaue was hiding out in. Once they had gathered themselves Ellie's eyes widened.

"He's not alone, Ultron's there, and so are the twins," She told the rest of the team.

"Let's go, but keep your guards up, we don't know the extent of the enhanced's abilities," Steve told them.

They carefully and quietly gained access to the ship, and they soon came across a wounded Klaue with Ultron standing over him.

"Stark is, he's a sickness!" They heard Ultron shout.

"Ahh, Junior. You're gonna break your old man's heart," Tony said.

"If I have to," Ultron threatened. Ellie gripped her throwing knives under the fabric of her suit.

"We don't have to break anything," Thor tried to say.

"Clearly you've never made an omelet," Ultron retorted.

"He beat me by one second," Tony said.

Steve looked at Tony with annoyance, why wasn't he taking this seriously?

"Ah, this is funny, Mr. Stark. It's what, comfortable? Like old times?" The male twin, Pietro, said.

"This was never my life," Tony said defensively.

"You two can still walk away from this," Steve offered.

"Oh, we will," The girl, Wanda, spoke.

"We know what you've been through-" Ellie started, but Ultron cut her off.

"Shouldn't you be out in space? Protecting the universe from... something? I don't know, I'm not sure about you yet," Ultron said.

"What? I don't need to be eliminated too?" Ellie asked sarcastically.

"No, you're doing a good enough job of that on your own." Ellie's facial expression faltered slightly, Tony saw this and decided to change the subject.

"Uh-huh. What's the Vibranium for?" Tony asked.

"I'm glad you asked that because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan." As Ultron finished speaking, the remaining sentinels from the Iron Legion flew towards them.

Ellie cut one that flew at her in half and walked towards Ultron. She used the reality stone to warp the time in the ship so that everything but herself was moving in slow motion. Ellie wasn't counting on Pietro.

He zoomed past her, knocking her sword out of her hand. She looked around frantically, trying to spot him moving amongst the mostly stationary objects around them.

He suddenly appeared right in front of her, "You're doing this," He gestured to their slow-motion surroundings, "Right?"

"Yes..." Ellie said. She wasn't really sure what was going on.

"So you are like my sister?" He asked.

"Similar, yes."

"Could you help her learn to control it?"

"Probably, but why? We aren't on the same side if you haven't noticed."

"I'm not really on Ultron's side, I just follow my sister," Pietro said.

"So why is _she_ on Ultron's side?"

"She's on any side that isn't Stark, I used to be... but this guy..." He gestured to Ultron, "He's crazy."

"I understand that," Ellie told him. "I won't touch your sister."

He nodded to her in respect before zipping off. She allowed time to resume and created mini black holes that crushed several of the sentinels in her immediate area.

The battle was going fairly well for the Avengers. Until Wanda started to use her abilities to their full potential.

She hit Thor first, then Steve, then Nat, then she tried to use it on Barton, which didn't go so well for her.

"Whoever's standing, we gotta move! Guys?"

"Clint, no one's on their comms. What's going on?" Ellie answered.

"I have a code green in the city!" Tony cried from his comm.

"The team is down, you have no backup," Clint said. Ellie suddenly appeared beside Clint and helped him up from where he was sitting against a railing. "We can't go back, we need to lay low. I've got a place in mind, we gotta get to the Quinn Jet," Clint said.

"I'll gather the others," Ellie said. She placed a hand on Clint's shoulder and teleported him into the quin jet. "Get it ready, something tells me we'll be needing to leave in a hurry. Clint nodded in response and then she disappeared.

She reappeared beside Thor, who was struggling to maintain his balance. "Thor, are you alright?" She asked

"I... I've seen something I do not understand," Thor told her.

"We have to go, Barton's got a safe house for us, I'm taking you to the quin jet," Ellie said.

Thor grabbed her hand, and she dropped him off right where she dropped off Clint, who was waiting for the rest of them.

Then Ellie was at Natasha's side, "Nat? Natasha? Are you okay?"

"I don't know," Natasha replied in a strained voice. She seemed scared, or upset, either way, it was something Ellie had never seen her with before and it was strange.

"Clint and Thor are waiting for us, take my hand," Ellie told her. Natasha stood and gripped Ellie's hand tightly. She out of all of the Avengers was the most uncomfortable with Ellie's mode of transportation, it tended to make her sick.

Clint caught Nat as she stumbled when she arrived with Ellie, "I'll be right back," Ellie said.

She appeared next to Cap. She grabbed his helmet which was laying on the ground and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Ellie?" He asked.

"Yeah Cap, it's me. Everyone's waiting for you at the quin jet." She reached out her hand, he nodded and took it.

She reappeared in the jet, leaving Steve with them. She reappeared in the ship and made quick work of the rest of Klaue's soldiers. Not having to worry about injuring any of their own made it much quicker and easier.

She went onto the comms, "Dad, is the Banner situation under control?"

"Yeah, I just got him down," Tony said tiredly. He let out a slight yelp as she suddenly appeared in front of both him and an unconscious Bruce.

She grabbed both of their shoulders and brought them both to the quin jet as well.

"So where are we going exactly?" Steve asked.

"A safe house, I hope," Clint told them.

Clint was piloting the plane towards their mystery destination. Bruce was sitting on the floor, listening to music, looking generally depressed, and who would blame him? Natasha was staring blankly at a wall. Cap was leaning against the wall, looking nostalgic. Tony was talking with Hill over the comms, trying to figure out what to do next. Thor was having a quiet conversation in Aesir with Ellie.

" _What did you see?"_ Ellie asked.

 _"The fall of Asgard, Ragnarok."_ Thor told her, " _Heimdal was there, he had lost his sight. I do not know what it means."_

Ellie shook her head, " _Neither do I, I'm sorry."_

Thor sighed, _"It is not your doing... perhaps if I had read more books I would know what these omens meant."_

Ellie and Thor both smiled slightly, but it didn't quite reach either of their eyes.

" _You really are worried aren't you? That means it's bad,"_ Ellie said. _"I could go to Asgard right now, ask Odin some questions if you'd like. I know you're not ready to leave."_

" _I would appreciate it, but don't you want to stay here?"_

 _"No actually, I've been itching to go,_ " Ellie said, and Thor raised an eyebrow. " _I'll come back of course, but I just... need some space, just a few hours."_

Thor seemed to be contemplating for a few moments, " _Thank you, Ellie, I owe you."_

Ellie gave him a slight smile and shook her head, before disappearing.

Tony looked over at Thor, "Where'd she go?"

"She went to check on something for me, it shouldn't take long," Thor said. Tony nodded with uncertainty but decided not to push it.

* * *

Loki was having a blast being Odin. People respected him, people treated him the way a true king deserves to be treated. All was well in Asgard. He was heralding in a new wave of the arts and culture of Asgard, he was rebuilding after the destruction caused by the dark elves.

There was only one thing missing... she wasn't here. He had seen her once actually, but he was quite certain she still didn't believe he was alive, something he didn't try to tell her. The time wasn't right yet. He would have to wait a few years more. Until he was able to change the public perception of 'Loki' in Asgard, then he would tell the people that Loki was alive and 'in hiding' this whole time. He would then name himself as the successor to the throne, as Thor abdicated. Then Odin would 'pass away', leaving Loki as the undisputed ruler of Asgard.

The whole plan would only take about three years to complete, by then, Bella would be about 22. He would bring her to Asgard and they would finally be able to be together without anything in their way.

He had just been thinking about her when all of the sudden, one of the guards approached his throne.

"My King, the Lady Stark is here to see you. She says she is coming on Thor's behalf."

Loki/Odin raised an eyebrow, "Send her in."

The doors were opened, and in she came. Loki noticed every detail. She had a faint scar on her cheek, one of her shoulders was higher up than the other, suggesting an injury, her eyes no longer held a smiling undertone, but instead were steel. She was wearing the suit he had given her, with a red cape like scarf attached to the back of it.

"What might I do to assist you?" He asked.

She looked at him with uncertainty for a moment, and Loki thought that maybe somehow she knew, but then he remembered that Odin disliked her, and she him. So she was likely wondering why he was being so cordial.

"Thor's seen something, it's gotten him quite shaken," She spoke.

Loki felt the slightest tingling sensation of jealousy run through him, "And what has he seen?"

"Ragnarok," She spoke clearly so that Loki could not mishear her words.

"My eldest son is prone to flights of misguided fancy, what makes you so sure he was correct in what he saw?"

She thought about it for a moment, "Because he was scared," She paused, "Thor is the bravest man I know, if it was bad enough to concern him I would think that should be enough to concern you as well."

Loki was beginning to become angry, she was speaking of Thor as if he were some saint! Was he not still with that mortal, Jane Foster? Was it possible his elder brother had taken Bella from him?

"And how would you know what my son looks like when he is afraid. I am certain you've never seen him in such a way."

She glared at him, "I'm _certain_ I have. What do you think he felt when he watched his little brother die right in front of him?"

Loki was silent, he stared back at her and marvelled at her anger. He was secretly pleased, he knew it meant she still cared about him. He would have been surprised that Thor had felt that way, but then again, Loki did hear his howls of grief as he thought he watched him die.

He sighed slightly, "If you insist on pursuing information, then I suggest the library. But I can assure you, Asgard is well, we are rebuilding. Perhaps Thor would like to be a part of that."

She shook her head, "Something tells me he's not interested."

"Why? Too preoccupied with that mortal woman? Or has someone else caught his eye?" Loki slyly raised an eyebrow at her.

She raised one back, "I don't know what you're insinuating, but Thor is like a brother to me."

"Perhaps if he had been more a brother to Loki... I would still have two sons," Loki said. He wanted to see what her reaction was, he was not disappointed.

Her expression went from mild anger to pure rage, "Like you ever gave a damn about Loki! Like you ever considered him your son!" She shouted at him. The guards glanced towards him nervously, but Loki motioned for them to stand down. "Maybe if you had done _that_ he would still be here!"

Loki shook his head, "You have a passionate spirit young one, help yourself to the information within the great library of-"

She shook her head, "No, you're right. Everything seems fine here. I'll go back and tell Thor his vision was just a nightmare," A slightly cruel smile then passed over her face, "And if I ever see you pretending that you cared about him again, I'll kill you."

Loki stared at her for a moment before she disappeared, and he realized something... maybe he had made a mistake.

* * *

When Ellie returned to the quin jet they had nearly arrived at Clint's mysterious safe house.

Thor turned to her as she appeared in front of him, " _All is well?_ " He asked her.

She nodded, " _Everything's fine, your father assured me._ "

"Thank you, Ellie."

She nodded at him slightly before turning to Tony, who had come up to her.

"Where'd you go?" He asked. He was trying not to pry, but if he was honest, he wanted a play by play of everything she had done when she wasn't in his presence. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, but he was just worried.

"Asgard," Ellie told him.

"Oh yeah, how was that?" Tony asked.

Ellie looked at him oddly, "Fine... Is something wrong?"

"No, why would you think that?" Tony asked. He spoke quickly and had a strange smile on his face.

Ellie stared at him, "You are acting really strangely."

Tony opened his mouth to say something, but then Clint spoke.

"We're here," He said from the front.

They could feel the plane descending, Ellie gripped Thor's shoulder to keep herself steady as the plane landed.

Thor smiled at her and she sent a slight smile back as the door opened to reveal what looked like a small farm next to a cute little farmhouse. Clint walked out and gestured for the rest of them to follow. Ellie and Tony shared a confused glance but followed him all the same.

As they entered the house Clint called, "Honey, I'm home!"

Then, a heavily pregnant woman came out from around the corner and shocked almost everyone, then all of the sudden two kids came running from around the corner. "Daddy!" They cried.

Ellie's face was the only one besides Nat's that wasn't shocked. She had been the one to delete all files of his family's existence.

Unfortunately, Ellie's body picked that time to begin to cough. Tony glanced at her and she smiled at him to reassure him. She made her way out of the house.

Tony watched her go with slight concern, this concern was magnified when he saw the expression on Thor's face. Thor looked seriously concerned, and soon after Ellie left, Thor followed her outside.

After a moment of deliberation, Tony decided to follow them outside.

Ellie had one hand over her mouth and the other was braced against Thor's arm. Thor was practically holding her upright, and she sounded like she was choking. Ellie was too busy trying to breathe to notice that Tony had followed them.

Thor did notice though, and between worried looks to Ellie, Thor locked eyes with Tony.

After a few painful moments, Ellie's fit seemed to end. Tony was still just standing there in shock.

Ellie wiped her eyes and cheeks, and she stood straighter on her own, Tony saw Thor tell her something quietly. Ellie's head whipped around and saw Tony standing there. She nudged her head out towards the field and walked out in that direction.

Thor's hand slid down her arm as she walked away, he was looking after her with concern.

Ellie and Thor had a bit of an odd relationship. She would've been his sister if Loki had gotten his way, she's certainly his friend, but she feels more like family. Seeing her like this only reminded him of all the other people he had lost, his mother... his little brother...

Tony walked up beside Ellie, who was sitting in the tall grass overlooking the field.

Tony sat down beside her and looked over at her. "Ellie... I want you to know that I support what you're doing." Ellie raised an eyebrow, not really expecting to hear him say that. "I would be doing the exact same thing if it were you or Pepper."

Ellie looked at him with surprise. She hadn't exactly kept the nature of her and Loki's relationship to herself, but she had been quite sure Tony only knew one side of it. "How do you-"

"I put the dots together," Tony said. "I just... I understand your motivation. What I don't understand is why." Ellie looked at him with confusion and elaborated. "You're dying Ellie, I just wanna be with you, and you're pushing everyone away. Why?"

Ellie shook her head slightly, "It's just... it's easier. And kinder, for the both of us."

"How is it kinder?" Tony asked.

"Because it'll be easier for you to forget about me, and it gets easier to ignore what's happening to me when I'm out there," Ellie said and gestured to the sky.

Tony looked down sadly, "I'm never going to forget about you kid. Never."

"You should, it's easier that way."

"Is that what you did when your parents died?" Tony asked. "You just hid everything and anything about your life before this?"

Ellie stared at him, "Yes, I... _I_ was the one who killed my parents Tony. I didn't want... I didn't want to remember anything."

Tony nodded in understanding, "But they didn't know about you right?"

"They didn't know I was a genius. But they knew everything important."

"Being a genius wasn't important?" Tony asked.

"I didn't think so at the time," Ellie's face warmed in nostalgia, "I just wanted to be normal."

Tony chuckled slightly, "Well so much for that."

Ellie sighed, "Yeah..." She looked at Tony, "We're good right?"

Tony didn't respond right away, "Why didn't you tell me about you and Loki?" He eventually asked.

Ellie hesitated, but answered, "Well, he did just try and take over the entire world... so..."

"I more meant after he..."

"Died?" Ellie asked. Tony nodded, "Because he... he told me he loved me, then six hours later he died right in front of me. _I_ could have done _something_ , but I didn't."

Ellie wasn't crying, but Tony could definitely tell she was upset. Her voice was not... it wasn't normal, not for Ellie. He was slightly surprised that Loki had told his daughter he loved her. The guy didn't really seem like the 'I'll profess my love for you' type of person, but clearly Tony did not know the man well.

"Did you love him?"

Ellie shrugged, "I don't really see why that matters now." Tony suddenly saw what she was doing. She was hiding her sadness behind anger and numbness. Tony had practically invented that move.

"It matters because you're out there, you're sick, you're all alone, and for what? For revenge? I just-" Tony paused, he was trying not to get emotional. "I just don't understand why you aren't spending whatever time you have left with the people who care about you."

Ellie sighed, "Because I should have-" She took a deep breath trying not to let her emotions get the best of her, "Because _he_ was supposed to live for another million years. _He_ was supposed to spend the rest of his life missing _me_. And now, because of some sick sense of humour the universe has, _I'm_ here missing _him_." Tony stared at her with a bit of pity, he had never really thought about it that way before. "I don't have enough time to be okay with what happened, I have to do something about it. Maybe then I'll be able to spend my last few months in peace, but until then... I can't stop."


	16. Chapter 16

Clint had told his wife a lot about the other members of the Avengers, including Ellie. Though, none of his stories quite accurately described what she saw when she looked at them. Laura saw the chemistry between Natasha and Banner right away, along with the tension between Ellie and Tony.

"So... what's going between the Stark's?" Laura asked Clint.

Clint looked at her, "Oh, right, I forgot to tell you... Ellie is... she's really sick. She doesn't think that she has much time left," Barton spoke sadly.

Laura covered her mouth, "I... that's terrible. And there's nothing anyone can do?"

Barton shook his head, "I don't really know, but neither of them seems to think so," he paused, "It probably also doesn't help that she's been gone."

Laura nodded, Clint had told her that part. Ellie had been travelling space with some new and strange friends.

"And... are her and Thor...?"

Barton's eyes widened in surprise, "No, I don't- Ellie and Loki were... quite close."

"Oh..." Laura said. "Really? Crazy Loki that blew up New York?"

Clint raised his hands, "I don't know, she knew him before, apparently he was different." He did up the last button on his shirt, "Ellie's a good kid, I don't know how, but I know it's gonna be okay."

Laura had moved to the window and was looking out at it curiously, "Maybe you should tell her that." Clint furrowed his brows and looked out the window as well.

He saw Ellie sitting in the tall grass, her knees tucked up to her chest as Tony walked back to the house. "Yeah," Clint said, "I'll be right back." He kissed Laura on the cheek and made his way downstairs.

Clint walked past Thor and Tony who were talking on the porch.

"Did you know about how bad it was?" Tony asked.

Thor nodded, "Yes, she asked me to keep it between the two of us because she did not want you to worry about her."

Tony shook his head, "I'm always worried about her."

"That would make two of us," Thor said.

Tony raised an eyebrow, "While I appreciate that you're looking after her... why do you care so much?"

"If all had gone according to Loki's plan she would've been my sister..." Thor trailed off for a moment, "She is a close friend and the last person alive who remembers how my brother used to be."

Tony nodded, "I just want her to be safe out there."

Thor chuckled slightly, "Trust me Stark, she is well above any who would try and face her."

"Well... that is something..." Tony sighed, "I think we need to gather the team..."

Meanwhile, Clint sat down next to Ellie. "So... we haven't really gotten the chance to talk since New York."

Ellie looked away from Clint, "Well, what's there to say? That I was friends with the man that took your free will from you and made you hurt your friends?"

Clint put a hand on Ellie's shoulder, "Kid, none of that was your fault. None of what happened in New York was your fault."

"Wasn't it? Loki only came here because of Thanos, but Thanos only sent him here because of me."

"Well, we could do the blame game like that if you want. Thanos only came here because of you, and you are only here because your parents gave birth to you, and they only gave birth to you because their parents gave birth to them, and their parents, and so on forever until the very first cell on Earth," Clint said with conviction. "So... unless you blame life itself, then I think we can all settle on it being Thanos' fault."

Ellie looked at Clint curiously, "Not Loki's fault?"

"Tony told us a little bit about what was going on, and I watched some footage from the helicarrier... I know that he was just trying to keep you safe," Clint explained. "Of course, that doesn't mean that I like the man."

Ellie looked back down to her feet, "Well, that's not something you have to worry about again..."

"I'm sorry that he's dead," Clint said.

Ellie shook her head, "You shouldn't be, he killed millions."

Clint sighed, "You know... Natasha has killed a lot of people," He started. Ellie looked at him, wondering where he was taking this. "Maybe if you take into account the death her actions caused indirectly, we might be talking about a million." Clint paused, "I was sent to kill her, and I decided that she wasn't really to blame. The people who trained and manipulated her were. So I brought her home."

"That was a nice story." Ellie stood from her position in the field, leaving Clint on the ground behind her. "I have to handle something, I'll be back soon."

Clint stood to quickly discourage her from leaving, but before he could even blink, she was gone. With that, Barton sighed and turned back to the house.

* * *

Ellie appeared in front of an old building in Katmandu, Nepal. She pulled her hood up over her face and knocked on the door. A man opened it and looked at her with wariness, "Who are you and what do you want?"

"I need to speak with the Ancient One," Ellie spoke quietly.

The man's eyes widened, "Come inside." They stepped inside and Ellie removed her hood, the man recognized her immediately, "You're Ellie Stark."

Ellie raised an eyebrow, "Yes, astute observation."

"My name is Baron Mordo," He introduced.

"Nice to meet you," Ellie spoke, "Is she here? I need to speak with her."

"Yes, I'll bring you to her," Mordo said. There was a pause, "What happened in South Africa?"

Ellie shot him a glance and he promptly shut up. They approached a sliding door and Mordo gestured for her to enter.

She walked into the room and saw the Ancient One sitting in a meditative pose. As Ellie approached her, she opened her eyes.

"Miss Stark, to what do I owe this pleasure?" She asked.

Ellie sat down in front of her, mirroring the Ancient One's position. "I have something for you," Ellie said. She pulled out what looked like a marble with orange, blue and red streaks through it. She handed it to the Ancient One, "If the world is ever in trouble, and I mean _serious_ trouble, then all you have to do is crush it. I'll get a message that the Earth is in danger and I will come."

The Ancient One looked at Ellie with slight confusion, "Why would we need to call you, my dear? What could you do to help us that we could not do ourselves?"

Ellie didn't verbally respond. Instead, she waved her hands and three 'stones' appeared in front of her. The Ancient One immediately knew what they were.

"How?" She gasped.

Ellie dispelled the illusion. "It doesn't matter. Just take this," Ellie gestured to the marble, "And know that I'll be here when you need it." She disappeared.

When Ellie came back to the farmhouse she saw what seemed like the end of an argument between Tony and Steve. Tony walked away into a barn on the other side of the house and Steve was left looking unsatisfied with the ending of whatever conversation they had been having.

She walked up to him and said, "I wouldn't take it too personally Steve. He has that sort of effect on everyone."

Steve turned and looked at Ellie, "I didn't know you were back."

Ellie smiled and shrugged, "Well, I come and I go. What can I say?"

"Well, a hello to your dad every once in a while probably wouldn't hurt."

Ellie smiled slightly sadly, "Yeah, probably."

Steve looked at her curiously, "You know, it might not be any of my business, but Tony told us about all this... stuff... with the infinity stones. Just... be careful."

"Desperately trying Steve, desperately."

Steve chuckled just as Thor walked out of the house.

"Ah! Ellie, just who I was looking for," Thor said boisterously. Thor put a hand on her shoulder and she smiled up at him, "I am going on an epic quest."

"Want some company?"

"If you're offering..."

"Yes," Ellie said without any hesitation. Steve frowned. "Where to?"

"The Water of Sight," Thor told her. "I believe it lies somewhere not far from London. It will be hidden with magic, and it is ancient."

Ellie shut her eyes for a moment, "I've got it." She extended her hand and when Thor grasped it, they disappeared from Steve's sight.

Steve sighed, "Why does no one listen to me?"

* * *

Ellie and Thor arrived at the Water of Sight, where Thor was hoping to be able to re-watch whatever vision Wanda had shown him.

"Have you considered that the girl just showed you some nonsense that was supposed to scare you?" Ellie asked as Thor partially undressed.

"I have, but I do not know how she could have conjured images of things she could not know," Thor replied.

Ellie nodded slightly, she still wasn't convinced, this whole place was giving her a real sketchy vibe.

"Is this... safe?" Ellie asked.

Thor looked at her and shrugged, "Probably not."

This made Ellie bite her lip with nervousness.

Thor approached the water and stepped in. Pretty quickly he began muttering things under his breath that Ellie couldn't quite hear. After almost a minute, the water began to crack and sizzle.

"Thor?!" Ellie shouted over the noise.

Suddenly, arcs of lightning began to move over the water, zapping Thor. He started to cry out and Ellie had to do something. She quickly unzipped her suit, leaving her just in her underwear, and quickly entered the water as well. She wanted to teleport away, but she found that it wasn't quite working. Ellie began to drag Thor out of the pool, which was no easy task.

After a few moments of struggle, Ellie managed to get them clear of the pool. They laid on their backs and breathed heavy.

"Are you alright?" Ellie said between breaths.

"I... yes, I think so," Thor said.

They laid there for another moment, "What did you see?" She asked.

"I saw Ultron, and... extinction," Thor said.

Ellie sighed, "I think we should head back."

Thor nodded and stood, he looked down at Ellie, then quickly looked away.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Ellie stood and grabbed her suit. "Let's go."

Thor looked at her with uncertainty, she seemed... different, it wasn't a sudden feeling. He had thought something strange was going on with her for a while, but maybe it was simply all of the hard blows life had dealt her recently.

* * *

Ellie and Thor arrived back at the farmhouse in a hurry.

"Tony! Steve!" Ellie called as they entered the house.

Everyone who was in the kitchen quickly come to the front of the house, "What's going on?" Steve asked, "Is everything okay?"

"We know where Ultron is... and maybe his next move," Thor said.

"We need to go now," Ellie said.

"Where?" Tony asked.

"Seoul," Ellie said. "In doctor Cho's lab."

With that Bruce's eyes widened, "What would he be doing there?"

"Didn't she say that you could print an entire body there if you wanted to?" Clint asked.

"You think he's making himself a body?" Ellie asked, "But why would he shed an indestructible form for... a human body?"

"Maybe he's a jealous little robot?" Tony suggested sarcastically, "I think that we shouldn't be trying to predict what Ultron's motives are. We need to be getting to Seoul, now."

"I'll get the jet ready," Clint said. "Everyone, suit up."

* * *

In the end, it was decided that Bruce was better equipped to go on a bit of a side mission to Switzerland with Tony where they were going to try to find the only person thus far that was able to defend any part of the web from Ultron's reach. Thor was still concerned about his vision and went out in search of Selvig, who might be able to help him further break down what he had seen.

That left Steve, Clint, Nat, and Ellie. All had been thoroughly lectured by Tony about not letting Ellie use her powers. It seemed like Tony had developed a theory that the more Ellie used her powers, the worse the side effects were. Needless to say that Ellie was not particularly pleased.

As the team was approaching Seoul, Cap turned to Ellie, "Can you see anything that's going on in there?"

"I see Dr. Cho, she's injured, and the stone... it's in a truck... on the overpass! There!" Ellie called and pointed.

"Drop me over it," Steve said to Clint, who steered them over the truck.

"Be careful! If you crash the truck, the stone might activate," Ellie warned Cap.

"Great..." Steve muttered under his breath. Steve dropped down, Natasha left the co-pilot's seat to ready herself for if the cradle got away from Cap. Ellie went up and sat next to Clint, taking Nat's spot. "Well... he's definitely angry! I guess I'll try and keep him that way."

Clint sighed, "You're not a match for him Cap."

"I can help," Ellie said. She was about to stand when Clint quickly forced her to sit down.

"Definitely not, I'd rather not be murdered by your father when he sees this on the news," Clint spoke. "Besides, it's not going that bad..."

"Yet," Ellie said with a sigh and a clenched jaw.

"Gee... thanks..." Cap said over the comms.

Ellie watched from the windows and saw that Cap was struggling. When she saw his Shield get kicked away from him, she gave Nat the signal.

Quickly Natasha was racing through the busy city streets while Steve was still fighting to maintain a grip on the truck, and by extension the cradle. Ellie tried to be helpful, but she wasn't sure how to from here. _This_ was why she liked running around with Peter and the gang, they didn't ever try to leave her out of things because of what was going on. She had learned how to do incredible things in this time, things that she wished she could use right now.

Ellie's attention refocused when suddenly the truck, with the cradle inside, began to fly in front of the jet.

"I got a shot on the truck," Clint said.

"Negative!" Was Nat's quick response, "I'm still in the truck."

Ellie and Clint shared a look that said: "Unbelievable."

"What are you-?"

"Just get ready, the cradle's coming at you in three... two... one..." Suddenly the cradle, with Nat attached to the back came flying out from the airborne truck. Just before it was about to land in the back of the quin jet, one of the robots grabbed Nat's ankle and dragged her off.

"Nat?!" Clint shouted. Ellie was frozen in horror, was it going to hurt Na? Or worse? "Does anyone have eyes on Nat?!"

Out of the corner of Ellie's eye, she saw Nat struggling to free herself from the robot's grasp, only to get knocked unconscious by a clubbed fist to the head.

"I'll get her," Ellie said, and before Clint could react, she had jumped out of her seat and leaped out of the cargo door of the quin jet. One of the things she could do quite well now was flying. She soared through the air, catching up to the robot quickly, but it wasn't alone.

Ellie threw up an orange shield as one of them attempted to blast her out of the sky. With a flick of her wrist, one of the robots disintegrated into little red butterflies that flew away before disappearing. The other was a little more pesky, always moving around irregularly. Ellie reached out and a beam of pure energy emitted from her hand, once she got a good hit on the rogue bot, it cut it in half.

During this brief scuffle, the robot carrying Nat had tried to make an escape attempt and was no longer within eyesight of Ellie. That was no problem. Ellie simply closed her eyes and flew with the navigation of the soul stone, which was tuned to Nat. Quickly she caught up, wrenched Nat from the bot's goo remaining arm, and created a tiny black hole within the robot that made it fold into itself, eventually forming a small ball that plummeted to the ground.

Ellie immediately transported Nat back to the quin jet, where Clint was flying quickly towards New York.

"You got her," Clint exclaimed, a hint of surprise in his voice.

"Yeah," Ellie said, "Where are the others?"

"Cap told me that I needed to get this to Tony as soon as possible," Clint said. "They're finding their own way back."

Ellie smirked slightly, "Or... I could do something _really_ cool."

Before Clint had any time to protest, Ellie placed her hands on the sides of the jet, all of the sudden, Clint saw flashing lights and golden swirls of energy, and dark shadows in the distance, all swirling past him barely before his eyes could react. Then, just as suddenly, they were above New York.

"What was that?!" Clint nearly shouted.

"I took a little shortcut through a different dimension. Don't worry about it."

"Don't worry about it?!"

"I'm going back to get Steve and the twins," Ellie said before she disappeared.

She wasn't there to see Clint's eyes narrow, "Of course the twins are coming... why wouldn't they? Typical," he muttered to himself.

* * *

Ellie appeared just as Wanda had brought the passenger train to a stop. She waited for them outside on the street as they exited.

"Ellie?" Steve asked in confusion.

"I jump started Clint's trip to New York, thought you might appreciate a lift?" Ellie asked with a grin.

Steve was torn, on one hand, Ellie did seem to be fine and well in control, but on the other hand, he didn't really want Tony to rant at the entire team again.

"I don't know..." Steve said. Wanda and Pietro watched the exchange with a little bit of confusion.

"We need to stop anyone from completing the... thing... that's in the cradle," Wanda spoke. "We need to get to Stark... quickly."

Ellie cocked her head at Wanda while looking at Steve, "Well, you heard her!" Ellie extended her hands, Steve grabbed one, while Wanda grabbed the other Pietro put his hand on Wanda's shoulder, connecting them all together.

They appeared just as Tony and Bruce seemed to have reached a decision about the cradle.

"The genetic coding tower's at ninety-seven percent. You have got to upload that schematic in the next three minutes," they could hear Bruce say as they appeared in the room.

Ellie took a few steps forward, "What are you doing?" She demanded.

Tony shrugged, "What does it look like?"

Ellie's lip twitched slightly and she shook her head, "This isn't a joke Tony, you don't know what that stone can do," She said sharply.

"It can fix this!"

" _I_ can fix this!" Ellie shouted back. "If you let me," She said softer.

"You need to stay out of this!" Tony yelled.

She looked up at him. Shock and hurt were written clearly on her face for everyone to see, tears welled in her eyes, "Then... I will..."

Ellie disappeared. Steve was about to tell Tony off, but then, of course, all hell broke loose.

Ellie reappeared in the empty Milano. Peter and the others were outside having dinner together, laughing and drinking and joking. Ellie just wanted to forget about Earth, forget about it all. Just for a while.

She was about to exit the Milano, but as soon as she took a step forward, something felt... wrong. Her chest, there was something... it hurt... it hurts!

Ellie gasped her chest, "Gamora!" Ellie cried out before the black edges on her vision overtook everything else.

* * *

Authors Note: Hi readers! New chapter finally! Please comment/review any thoughts you have! Also, I just realized that you can actually reply to comments directly, so from now on I'll do that too :)


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